100 things to save the planet 000

Placeholder post for the 100 Things blogging challenge, part two: one hundred ways to save the planet. I'm ordering two books on the subject from B&N (one has a hundred things, one has a thousand one), which ought to provide sufficient inspiration.

100 things to save the planet 001

*flips through the Living Green: 365 ways to make a difference flippy calendar*

"For a few dollars more per month, your local utility will deliver wind, solar, or water power, or some combination thereof." I rent a bedroom, a fraction of a basement, and use of the bathrooms and kitchen and utilities. I doubt this is an option.

"Resolve to buy dry goods like flour [et al] in bulk." Yes, because clearly I have the money and the storage space and the expectation of being able to use all I buy.

Note to self, investigate the possibilities found via eatwellguide.org and localharvest.org. Particularly "Adam and E's Garden of Eatin'", just because of the name. I don't expect the food budget to be substantially diverted, though.

"Eliminate all harmful chemicals from your personal-care products. Become a habitual label-reader. One simple rule: if you wouldn't put it in your mouth, don't put it on your skin[.]" Personal-care products have to be tested to hell and gone to make sure they're safe before they're sold, don't they? This idea isn't so much about harmful chemicals as about sciency-sounding chemicals.

Reusable water bottle? Do that. Take lunch instead of buying? Do that, when there's food to be took. Give to an environmental charity? Do that. Microloans to entrepreneurs committed to sustainable farming—don't do that specifically, but do do microloans. I'm looking for new things.

And that exhausts January in the calendar, and all I've learned is to investigate my Kiva recipients a bit more carefully and maybe focus on women in sustainable farming rather than women in the arts. And investigate environmentally friendly power and ask my parents if they'll (or, more likely, I'll or we'll) spend a few more dollars a month to get it. Given my mother's reaction to the impending disappearance of incandescent bulbs from the shelves, namely 'stock up', I doubt the reaction will be a positive one. (Had to buy the fluorescent for my desk lamp myself, after discovering that the LED desk lamp from ThinkGeek is ineffectual at lighting more than a few inches of desk and also had busted LEDs. At least the one I got was. I don't know if they've come out with another.)

100 things to save the planet 002, 100 college things 002

Monitor says 100 - 240 V, 1.5 A, which the Internet tells me is roughly 130 - 300 W. Assuming the bulb I've got is a 100 W because it doesn't say. (Fluorescent. Probably well under 100 W. But let's estimate 100 W.) No idea about the computer, so let's double the estimate of the bulb and monitor put together. So 300 and change kWh/month. At twenty cents per hundred kWh/month to buy green power instead of coal/nuclear from the electric co-op, let's call it a dollar so I don't have to fuss with cents. So now my parents can buy five blocks of green power from said co-op so that my electricity usage is entirely from wind, solar, or water. (Or biomass. I intend to Have Words with the co-op, or perhaps the letters to the editor, about defining biomass as green power, because biomass creates air pollution. But meanwhile I'm going to pretend none of my power comes from biomass.)

This 'hundred ways to save the planet' post brought to you by this 'hundred things I'm learning in college' post:

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE.

100 things to save the planet 003

Signed up for the 10:10 challenge to reduce carbon footprint by ten percent in a year (originally in 2010, but any year will do). Then I thought, hm, what is my carbon footprint?

Eighteen tons of CO2 a year. Nine tons below the US average. Twelve and half over the world average.

Funding carbon offset programs through nature.org is, for 10:10, cheating. I'm still gonna do it, at the rate of $25/month when it's $15 to offset a single ton, but it's cheating. I really don't know how I'm going to get down to sixteen tons by this time next year. Little chart came with the calculator results says most of my footprint is home energy use. I don't have control over the thermostat settings and insulation around here. Will shutting down my computer and turning off the power strip during worktime and sleeptime really reduce my energy use significantly enough to justify the inconvenience?

(yes, still procrastinating)