What's this all about anyway?

In case anyone happens to wander over here from muzzle of bees (where I snuck in a guest blog post), I thought I’d whip up a quick note as an introduction to this blog.

When I was a kid, I remember learning about all sorts of environmental issues in school. I did a project on solar power, and another one on why we shouldn’t litter. I think it’s safe to say that we all grew up being taught about the environment and why polluting it was bad. But fast forward 20 years (give or take), and how many of us are actually still thinking about those issues? I, for one, was not, and I know a good number of my friends weren’t either. Sure, I wouldn’t toss trash from my car, wouldn’t litter on camping trips, or leave anything behind when packing up from a day on the beach; I wouldn’t intentionally harm the environment but certainly wasn’t doing anything proactive for it either.

And then I thought about it one day and wondered, would it really be that painful to start actually caring? So I decided to give it a stab, and decided to write about what I was doing along the way, and you know what? It isn’t that hard at all.

So if you’re just arriving here, here are a few quick and painless ways I’ve found to get started:

1. Reuse your grocery bags. I found some cloth bags I’m a fan of but even reusing the plastic bags you have laying around your house is a start.
2. Switch out some of your lightbulbs to Compact Florescent Bulbs and save some energy.
3. Try staying away from traditional cleaning products and instead use non-toxic baking soda and vinegar to get the job done.
4. Try eating local at least once a week, and help cut down on the fuel used to transport food.
5. Go see an Inconvenient Truth (it will scare you into doing at least one of the above)

My hope is that anyone who reads this blog might just be up for giving one (or more) of these a try. If you're just arriving and need more justification, I hope you'll explore some past posts, which try to give a few good arguments in favor of saving this planet of ours. And I promise--I'm not asking anyone to turn into a treehugger or a vegan (not that there's anything wrong with that). I've just come to realize that a little bit of thought here, a tiny bit of effort there is something many of us can afford. And take it from someone who just started caring--once you start picking up on these habits they don't seem out of the ordinary at all.