Time to step up and do your part

Now that we can finally put electoral politics behind us it is time for some action.

Environmentalism seems to have finally begun to reach the masses. After decades of denial, that seemed way too easy to succumb to by the average citizen, there was a move towards “green” in our social discourse and consumption options. Much of that was just “green washing”, and that is an issue that still needs to be addressed, but there is progress being made. People realize that though scientists refuse to find definite climate change causality in any one weather event, there is near universal scientific agreement that the alarming trends in extreme weather events is definitively caused by global warming which is caused by humans introducing large amounts of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

So what can you do? Well there is a near limitless list of things you can do. What do I suggest? Anything. Just do SOMETHING.

My own approach, and that which I try to influence others to try, is what I call “Just one thing”. The basic premise of my approach is that to avoid being overwhelmed by all of the things you can do to change your impact on our planet, you do “just one thing” and embrace it. Do it until you can't imagine NOT doing it. You will find that no matter what you choose, because you will naturally choose something that you deem doable, you will find it to be a viable option and not terribly difficult to make a permanent change in your life. You will likely feel good about that change. You may wonder why it took you so long to make that change. All in all, it will feel and BE good.

So what is next after you make that change in “just one thing”? Choose another “one thing”. Wash rinse repeat.

With this method you can make incremental changes in your attitudes and behaviors that can have a significant impact on your life, and when combined with everyone else's “just one thing” have a significant impact on the planet's future.

We have made steps toward a sustainable future, but we are no where near it yet. We all need to do our part. Please, do “just one thing”.

Suggestions to start your change:

Buy just one LED light bulb - we need economies of scale to bring prices down and there are already good products out there for the cost of what you might throw down for something insignificant, though priced much higher than incandescent or compact florescent bulbs.  I have a number of different LEDs in my house and am quite pleased with their function and energy savings.

Turn down your LED TV - I use the ECO settings on my TV to decrease the LED backlight brightness to save energy.  Using a watt meter  I have found my TV can save over half of its energy usage this way.  For news and most shows the picture is fine and I can always turn this feature off for a particular movie or show if I want the brilliance my TV can provide.

Use your microwave to heat water for tea or hot chocolate, etc - microwaves are the most efficient way to heat water.  Little to no energy is wasted.  Some may prefer to heat food on the stove, believing that there is some quality degradation using microwaves, but heating water with microwaves is an energy saver.

Buy something that was produced locally - disregard the minor cost difference, just pay a bit more to help a local fellow citizen and save transportation energy, too.

Hang your clothes to dry them - wait a minute, this one just might deserve its own blog post.......