In my hooky playing today I worked on links for the new Crunchy forum at Mama-Drama. In doing *that* I found a new to me and way cool website - http://www.grist.org . They in turn have an advice column and it has some great articles. Read all of the links first from http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2005/08/22/umbra-eitheror/index.html and then from http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2005/08/24/nextstep/index.html this one.

The biggest thought is here - "Conscientious shopping is not equal to or a substitute for environmental activism.". I'm sure the people and advertisers at http://www.organicstyle.com/ don't want that sort of information out and running around on the Internet, but it's TRUE. It doesn't matter how fairer trade than though your coffee is, what matters is that your representatives KNOW that you vote and it's important to you.

So, I read through the articles and boiled them down a bit. Now I need to see if I can turn my Suburban into a Bio-diesel loving green machine (that's silliness people, SMILe!).

1. Transport
Fuel efficient cars
use cars are little as possible
buy as small as possible
use mass or foot transit as often as possible

2. Food
organic
meat-free day once a week
buy local produced foods
reusable cloth bags (paper or plastic is negligible)

3. The heavy parts of home
compact fluorescent bulbs (and when it's dead take it to the hazardest waste disposal since it has a tiny amount of mercury on it)
energy efficient homes with energy star appliances
choose clean power
reduce water usage
smallest house we need
live close to work and shopping
weatherize
plant trees around
don't use pesticides
home energy audit
don't have/use rarely a spare fridge/freezer

4. Activism
write your reps
teach others
advocate for mass and foot transport

5. Misc
plant trees
reduce, reuse, recycle

I completely agree with you; I do feel people think "they do enough" or even worse: all they can do. We all can do more and we do need to be extreme.

I have said "I wish we would just run out of oil and get it over with." If we had to live without it, we would. So many people feel entitled to thier Hummers and RV's.

I thought I'd see how I measure up.

1. Transport
Fuel efficient cars We drive a Prius
use cars are little as possible DH bikes to work
buy as small as possible It's just big enough for the 4 of us; we decided there was no point buying a bigger car *just in case* we needed to take another person.
use mass or foot transit as often as possible We walk to the farmer's market, library, post office, outdoor amphitheatre, etc. when the weather is bearable.

2. Food
organic We buy as much organic as we can - probably 90%.
meat-free day once a week We eat meat-free 4 nights a week, fish the other 3.
buy local produced foods We buy some at the farmer's market, but have a hard time finding local organics.
reusable cloth bags (paper or plastic is negligible) Yep, we use canvas!

3. The heavy parts of home
compact fluorescent bulbs (and when it's dead take it to the hazardest waste disposal since it has a tiny amount of mercury on it) We switched to CF years ago.
energy efficient homes with energy star appliances We buy Energy Star, but the house is old and leaky.
choose clean power We use the power co. DFIL works for, which uses some clean power, buy only what is required by law.
reduce water usage Does limiting bathing to every other day count? Oh yeah, I have a front loader and an energy efficient Bosch dishwasher.
smallest house we need 1700 square feet...I could go smaller but DH can't. At least we're decided not to go bigger.
live close to work and shopping Definitely close to both, but HFS is 5 miles away and we do the bulk of our grocery shopping there.
weatherize Need to do this!
plant trees around House is shaded by redwoods.
don't use pesticides I'd rather have bugs on my roses than use sprays.
home energy audit Did one a few years back.
don't have/use rarely a spare fridge/freezer We have an outside freezer...still trying to find a way to go without.

4. Activism Okay, other than living as an example I completely fall down on activism. This is the area that I am so different compared to my early 20s.
write your reps
teach others
advocate for mass and foot transport

5. Misc
plant trees
reduce, reuse, recycle Uh, no brainer.

Kimberly

ohh good list

Lets see how do we stand

1. Transport
Fuel efficient cars - 41 mpg average in a "recycled" car
use cars are little as possible - 1 day per week
buy as small as possible - honda civic, pretty small
use mass or foot transit as often as possible - walk or bike the other 6 days/week, bus during the winter

2. Food
organic - gotcha. This is new for us this year.
meat-free day once a week - meat free almost every day, maybe only 1x per week with meat.
buy local produced foods - CSA subscription & locally owned grocery with local products & farmers market every week
reusable cloth bags (paper or plastic is negligible) - gotcha, but could use about a million more. My grocery bags keep getting used for other stuff (ok, everything really)

3. The heavy parts of home
compact fluorescent bulbs (and when it's dead take it to the hazardest waste disposal since it has a tiny amount of mercury on it) - been replacing as conventional bulbs burn out.
energy efficient homes with energy star appliances - gotcha
choose clean power - we contribute to the states "thing" to support renewable energy sources and we "get" a portion of our power from that.
reduce water usage - instant on water heater, reuse cold water for plants
smallest house we need - gotcha, 1000 sq. feet 1 bath, 2 bedroom.
live close to work and shopping - within 1 mile of downtown, close enough to walk even whan it's ugly outside.
weatherize - gotcha
plant trees around - older house with established trees - 7 on our city lot alone. We're adding 1 and replacing 1 that is about to die
don't use pesticides - wouldn't know one if I saw it.
home energy audit - nope, but it was pretty obvious what needed to be done first
don't have/use rarely a spare fridge/freezer - gotcha

4. Activism - none of these, I'm not much of an advocate. More of an example.
write your reps
teach others
advocate for mass and foot transport

5. Misc
plant trees - gotcha
reduce, reuse, recycle - obsessively so

Hey we're not doing to bad. I'm sending this list to my friends!

Chole

Very cool website.
I just made another 8 cloth bags to use instead of plastic/paper.(At our house they all get used for other things ALL the time. ie shoe bags for the gym, librbary totes, crap company is coming quick pick up your legos and get them in your room catch alls) I am going to be making or purchasing the fine gauze produce bags some time in the future, when our CSA is done for the season.

Planning on replacing our majorly energy sucking freezer when we are able to afford it. Sorry, but with 6 people in our family, and an extra large CSA share, I rely on freezing some produce for the winter. I do can some.

I just switched job so I could walk to work instead of driving 45 mile commute. Our commuter car does get 42 MPG.

We live in a 1600 sf older home, despirate for new windows and new insulation. There is a grant program I have found out to help lower to middle income earners with the cost. I think theyt will also assist with water heater purchases.