Perhaps it’s just me, but I feel like lately (in the past few months or so), I’ve noticed a lot more ‘Going Green’ articles and tips coming from very mainstream sources, i.e. grocery store magazines, news network homepages, etc. However, I can’t help but feeling like they are just recycling the same old suggestions: switch your light bulbs, get a reusable grocery bag, walk for short trips, etc. I wonder if it’s a bit like dieting and budgeting where people keep looking for new things when the basic information is still the same but no one is listening to it: burn more calories than you consume, spend less than you earn. Still, I feel like I’m seeing articles about how to ‘get green’ crop up in places where I don’t recall seeing them this time last year, or even in the early part of this year. I’m not sure where the impetus is coming from; though I know that the weather patterns have caused many people to wonder about climate change, and all the news about the ice caps probably adds to that as well. However, I don’t here a lot of people talking about the environment that I didn’t hear talking about it before. Perhaps it’s the circles that I run in: many of my friends have been environmentally conscious long before ‘being green’ was a buzz term. These articles could also be proliferating because people can see real changes in their health, budgets, and other areas of their life from doing more environmentally friendly things like eating local produce, walking to the library, and only doing full loads of laundry. As I mentioned before, I don’t mind if people want to implement small changes, so long as they realize that there are both small and big changes we can make and put those into perspective in order to make lasting lifestyle changes, versus having some sort of diet-fad style environmental movement. Also, since I like to not just complain about things but offer solutions, I thought I would list of couple of easy things to do, that I haven’t seen on every list out there (though they are probably on a few).

  • Cut up your old t-shirts, towels, washcloths, or any other soft fabric you may have an use them as rags

  • Pay attention to open and closed blinds and windows in your domicile to maximize heating and cooling efficiency

  • Instead of chucking your old stuff to the curb, offer it up on freecycle: you never know how your old broken furniture could fit into someone’s art project

  • Don’t print out the full on-line directions )which seem to need to use three-pages to tell you how to get anywhere). Instead, write the directions down on a piece of paper (preferably scrap); this will save you both paper and ink

I’m sure there are others; do you have any to recommend?