On little things that mean a lot:

Little things you can do about global warming…

Walk when you can

Ride your bike when you can

Hypermile when you drive (see 6/23/2007 post)

Combine errands to cut down on car trips

Park once at shopping centers and walk between stores

Carpool

Get a stainless steel water bottle (www.gaiam.com, www.klean canteen.com) and a filter; filter your own water and carry it in your bottle (stainless doesn’t wear out as fast as plastic and, as a bonus, won’t leach dioxin into your water—47 million gallons of oil are used and 1 billion pounds of CO2 emissions are produced each year to supply America with plastic water bottles!*)

Use tempered glass food storage containers (glass doesn’t wear out as fast as plastic and, as a bonus, won’t leach dioxin into your food)

Buy some cloth grocery bags or reuse plastic bags rather than using new plastic or paper bags every time

Buy post-consumer recycled products

Cloth diaper or use g diapers or eco-disposables with less plastic

Reuse plastic produce and grocery bags for wrapping diapers or as pooper scoopers rather than buying new bags on a roll

Wash zipper bags and reuse (dry them on large serving spoons stuck in the utensil rack of a dish drainer—this will also save you a fair amount of money)

Use non-petroleum based products for cleaning (Seventh Generation, Ecos, Ecover, BioKleen etc. or just baking soda and vinegar)

Save air conditioning for the hottest days or find other ways to keep cool; if you must use it, set your thermostat slightly higher

In winter, set your thermostat slightly lower and wear a sweater

Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (these use up to 75% less energy than with standard incandescent bulbs*)

Shut off lights when you’re aren’t in a room

Shut off computers when not using them

Unplug appliances and chargers when not in use

Get Energy Star appliances

Run dishwasher and washing machine only when full

Install a low flow shower head (saves water and energy that would have been used to heat that water)

Buy local produce, fish and meat – eat only what’s in season here (lots more fuel is used to bring foods from far away)

Read the newspaper and catalog shop on line (ask companies you do business with to stop sending catalogs)

Get on the national Do Not Mail list: https://www.directmail.com/directory/mail_preference/

Use the library

Plant a tree

*www. gaiam.com