Grow Your Own, Mr. President

Here is a cool little video urging President-elect Obama to convert the White House lawn into a vegetable garden, complete with time-lapse photography on what the author Roger Doiron did.
(http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009021.html)

This raises a good point about our fascination with green manicured lawns. Most of this precious land would be better served growing something useful, like stuff we can actually eat. Victory Gardens were popular once, it's time to bring them back!

Instead of buying vegetables that have most likely traveled thousands of miles to your door, why not grow them in your own garden? Don't have your own yard? Then see if you can go in on a community garden.

There is no reason why everyone cannot grow their own.

Little Things - Let Air do its Job

Another quick "Little Things" note. When you have things that need to dry, let the air do its job and dry them for you. When you wash your hair, let the air dry it instead of running a hair dryer. When you wash dishes, just leave them in the rack to let the air dry them. If you use a dishwasher, stop it before the dry cycle starts and just open the door. When you wash clothes, hang them outside on the line when possible. If you are concerned about them being too stiff from drying on the line, you can run them in the dryer for just a couple of minutes to soften them up. Besides using much less energy than drying clothes in a dryer, your clothes should last longer too. You don't have the dryer wearing out your clothes while they get tumbled around.
Anything that can be dried by air, let it. It's free after all.

Little Things - 50 Little Things

Here is a cool article that lists 50 little things you can do to help the environment and live a healthier life.
50 Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Although some of the information is specific to the San Jose/San Francisco Bay area, there are plenty of good ideas that just about everyone can use. Some may be obvious, some may be new to you. It is a great list to refer to for some inspiration.

Little Things - Grow Your Own

What better way to get back to nature than to get your hands dirty and grow your own food? The new revolution is taking place in our backyards and neighborhood garden plots. This article gives some good reasons to grow your own food - (http://groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1657).
With our global economy, food now gets shipped all over the world. We can practically have any type of food available to us year round. But, there is a cost to shipping food around the world. There is the obvious costs of fuel, and then there is the pollution created by shipping, and the potential for global spreading of any number of diseases and illnesses too. When you grow your own food, you know exactly where it came from and what went into growing it. If you are careful and raise your food organically, you can enjoy eating it knowing that you are not putting toxic chemicals into your body. Plus, you are doing a small part to help ease up the consumption of fuels and lower the amount of pollution related to food transport. Sure, your one small backyard garden won't make much difference related to the worldwide consumption of food, but every little bit does help. And, it is when many of us have the same attitude and all do our little parts that add up to a big change. Join the revolution.

Little Things - Use Less, Not Buy More

Continuing on the theme of Little Things we can do to save our Little Ones, an easy practice we can try is using less of what we already have. The concept is a departure from the general consumerism public mantra of buying the latest new whatever in order to save energy or pollute less. We are constantly being informed that we should replace our light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, buy a new hybrid car to save gas and pollute less, buy a new energy-efficient appliance, buy solar panels to cut electricity use, etc. I wonder why we must buy more stuff in order to save energy or pollute less? Why can't we simply use less of what we already have? Instead of buying a bunch of compact fluorescent bulbs, which have environmental issues of their own, why not turn off the lights you already have in your home? If you just turn off a light, it truly does not cost you anything. Try using more natural lighting by opening blinds and curtains during the day. One could even go as far as tailoring their activities a little more to the natural cycle of daylight. After all, that is what humans have done for hundreds of years before. We don't need to abandon artificial lighting, we can just take some easy measures to use it less.
Hybrid vehicles have become more of a "green" status symbol than really saving the world. Even though they may pollute less during its use, hybrid cars produce more pollution and waste during the manufacturing and disposal process than most other vehicles. Their batteries require raw materials to manufacture and then must be disposed of once they are no longer useful. If one must drive a motor vehicle, a small fuel-efficient gas or diesel car may serve just as well, and in the overall life of the car may produce less pollution. If you already have an economical car, there is not much advantage to spending thousands of dollars for a new hybrid.
Energy efficient appliances are excellent to look for when your current appliance no longer works. It is not really a practical excuse just to go out and buy a new one. Refrigerators are usually the post power hungry appliance. Even if you have an older one, you still need to investigate the cost of a new one, and how long it will take to recoup that cost with the energy savings. If you have a second refrigerator, like one in the basement or garage, unplugging that one can save you a bit of money, especially if it is an older one. You can save a bit of money by using your dryer less, or not at all. During the warmer months, washed clothes can be hung out on the line to dry. Some can even dry clothes indoors. This only costs you the clothesline, and will save a bunch from running the dryer less. If clothes are too stiff from drying on the line, a few minutes in the dryer will soften them.
Solar panels are a good idea. The problem is that they are still quite expensive. They will probably run you about 15 to 20 thousand dollars to get a setup for your house. They will take many years to pay for themselves. Again, using less electricity costs you nothing. If the price of solar panels comes down and the price of electricity increases dramatically, then they might be worth the investment.
Water can be saved using a poor man's greywater system. There are lots of resources on this on the internet, put a simple way to start is placing a bowl or small bucket in your sink or shower. As you use the water from the faucet, whatever ends up in the bowl or bucket can be used to water plants outside. Some use the water from the shower to help in flushing the toilet. Another way to save a bunch or water is to reduce your lawn. If you live in an area that needs a lot of water for irrigation, you can check into replacing some or all of your green grass with other plants that use much less water. You can also check into replacing the grass with other items like wood chips, gravel, etc. These require no water, and no mowing.
There are many new gadgets on the market that one can purchase to go "green". Some are worthwhile, some are just status symbols. Taking a good look around and seeing where you can use less is the cheapest and quickest way to that green status, at least in my opinion.

Little Things - Save a Car Trip

Here is a little thing that most people could do to help out themselves and the environment. Try to just once a week replace a car trip with walking, biking, or taking public transit. If the distance is short enough, walk or bike. This could be a trip to the local store, a visit to a neighborhood friend's house, visit to the neighborhood park, etc. I would suggest this over attempting to commute by bike, as commuting takes more planning and is time specific. Commuting can be explored later on. Think of a trip you usually take by car at least once a week. It should be a local, convenient trip you can make by foot or bike. For me, I like to make a Sunday morning trip down to the local grocery store to pick up bagels for me and the kids. It's about 1 1/2 miles round trip, something that is easily done by bike. Even walking if fun if we have the time. Since I am only getting some small items, I don't need to worry about how to transport a bunch of stuff back home. To make the trip more adventurous, I sometimes attach the bike trailer and take the kids. They get a blast out of riding in the trailer, and they get bagels as a treat. Other times we take the trailer to the ice cream shop for a milkshake. They really get a kick out of that.
These types of outings are good in a few ways. For me, it gets me out in the neighborhood to see it in more of a personal level, rather than zooming by in a car at 40 MPH. I also get a little exercise. Riding a bike with a trailer isn't too difficult, but it does get the blood pumping. For the kids, it gives them something to get excited about. I get to spend some quality time with them. Plus, they get accustomed to seeing bikes used as practical transportation. A trip to the store or ice cream shop does not necessarily mean a trip in the car now. If I ask if we should take the car or bike trailer to the store, the answer is almost always "bike trailer!".
So, as one gets acclimated to the routine of making one trip a week without the car, it's easy to branch out to maybe one or two other trips by bike or walking. It is just one little thing that helps us all.

Little Things to Save Our Little Ones

Here's the deal; I read lots of stuff telling us how the world is in a bunch of trouble and will spontaneously combust any minute now if we don't stop doing this or don't start doing that to save it. Most have good intentions and are trying to get the message out that we are destroying the world, if not for us, for our children and their children. Many stories point out what is wrong, and not much is said about what we can do about it. Some point out many things we can do, but unless you are already doing them or are already in that mindset, they are just simply too overwhelming for the average person to relate.
What I am mulling over is a way to create a list of things that the average person can do. These would be little, everyday things that would be the small steps to larger things. These things don't need the pretense that they are to "save the world". They can just be little things to make the person feel better about themselves and their environment. And, this would be not just a list, but an explanation of how-to and how it would benefit the person and the environment. I'm sure something like this does exit out there in many forms, but I will make an attempt to put together something, if for no other reason than to keep my own actions in check.