Suggestions for living in a manner that is respectful of the environment. [swiped from Greenpeace's Environet BBS] - Think globally, act locally. - Don't buy products from or invest in businesses that harm the environment. Explain to them why. - Don't buy cosmetics from companies that abuse animals. - Recycle. Start with newspapers, glass, clear plastic, and aluminum cans. - Use recycled products. Buy greeting cards made from recycled paper. - Purchase drinks in glass or cans instead of plastic containers. Glass and aluminum are easier to recycle. - Ask for paper instead of plastic bags at the supermarket. Ask that your frozen foods not be wrapped in plastic wrap. Don't use a bag when you can easily carry your purchase by hand. - Refill drinking water instead of buying a new plastic container each time. - Cut up the plastic rings that hold together 6-packs so that there are no loops. (Birds get caught on them.) - Cut up plastic bags you dispose of, especially clear ones. (Sea turtles mistake them for jellyfish and die from ingesting them.) - Purchase items in bulk packaging. - Avoid aerosol cans. - Buy organic produce. - Avoid clothes that need dry cleaning. - Use cloth diapers. Compromise: use disposables on vacation. Use disposables at night. - Use a laundry detergent that is low in phosphorus. - Use a clothes line. - Avoid products packaged in plastic. E.g. buy margarine in paper/wax wrappers instead of the plastic tubs. Reuse the plastic containers you do buy. - Wash your dishes by hand. - Don't let the water run when you brush your teeth. - Limit offspring. Consider adoption. Compromise: make the first, adopt the rest. - Teach your children the importance of the environment. - Dress according to the weather, and set the thermostat appropriately. - Live close enough to work that you can walk or bicycle there. Compromise: Carpool. Use public transit. - Carpool. Use public transit. Compromise: buy a fuel- efficient car. - Don't buy a car air conditioner. - If it's within walking distance, walk to it. - Don't flood your house/yard with insecticide, chemical fertilizers, etc. - Dispose of toxics properly (paint [thinner], motor oil, ...). - Have only as much lawn as you're willing to cut with a push mower. - Water your yard at night. - Plant trees. Garden; use your garbage as compost. - Shop by mail. - Avoid products made of animal parts (ivory, leather wallets and belts, snake skin boots, etc, etc). - Donate to environmental groups. Environmental Defense Fund: Dept P, 257 Park Av South, NY NY 10010. Environmental Action Foundation: 1525 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Sierra Club: 730 Polk St, SF CA 94109. Conservation Foundation: 1250 24th St NW, Suite 500, Washington DC, 20037. - Encourage the easing of world tensions, so as to increase the opportunity for arms reductions. - (Publicly) congratulate and encourage reformed polluters and those with good environmental records. - Support measures that will mitigate population pressure. - Encourage your town/city to start a curbside recycling program. - Discourage the attitude that the Earth and the life forms on it exist to be plundered and shaped for the pleasure of humans. - Discourage the attitude that the future is destined, -- that events are beyond our influence, that we can not solve the problems we have created. - Encourage the viewpoint that it is immoral to future generations for us to not move the human race toward a sustainable lifestyle. - Discourage over reliance on technological fixes. - Emphasize that much of the problem is due to everyday activities of ordinary people. [I believe that worship of Mother Earth without environmental action, no matter what ritual healing you do, is the most disgusting hypocrisy. Look this list over carefully. --Groundhog]