Tuesday, July 18, 2006

a few ways to save

It is days like today that I feel, wow, we really are experiencing global warming and that I make an even harder vow to try and be more eco-friendly. Just in the newspaper today I read about another tsunami in Indonesia, the unusually high number of forest fires, and of course these record breaking triple digit temperatures across the United States. I also recently saw Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth. Now as a visual person, I was stunned at seeing images of the highest mountain tops of the world 50 years ago majestic and grand with peaks full of snow and the same mountains today seemingly barren and tired. It’s pretty crazy. It’s an important movie for all of us to see and support especially if you know or have children. I’ve already spammed all my family and friends because there are so many insignificant things we can do to make a significant impact in saving our resources which brings me to my list. Here are a few things I’ve been doing to save the trees and other resources:

1. Telling the cashier I don’t need a bag when I can easily carry what I’ve purchased in my purse or pocket.

2. Carrying a hanky around instead of using paper towels to wipe my hands in public bathrooms. Everyone does this in Japan. Also thought this would make a great Christmas gift for all my relatives!

3. Making sure I’m hungry enough to eat all my food at restaurants instead of taking to go boxes.

4. Keeping a big basket next to our mail for recycling all that wasteful awful junk mail.

5. And just buying recycled products whenever you do need to buy paper. We don’t really need fancy stuff all the time.

Does anyone else have some good new tips?

p.s. the image is a wall hanging I silk-screen printed!