Category Archives: Green Ideas

Carbon Fast – Day 3

Go meat-free today.  Choosing meat-free meals is one of the most powerful things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

Yesterday and today’s carbon fast actions barely created a ripple around here.  Before I became vegetarian, the Fridays of Lent required a bit more thought, and they often included some type of fish.

Despite some potential health benefits and (perhaps) having a smaller carbon footprint than meat, fish and other seafood still have environmental costs.  In the Midwest, most seafood must be shipped a good distance to reach our stores and tables.  Demand for fish leads to overfishing, a serious problem in many parts of the world, especially marginalized areas where people rely on the sea for their food.  Fish farming, commonly used for salmon, involves feeding the fish lots of unnatural food, like corn, along with artificial coloring to provide that nice “healthy” pink hue.

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Daily action from http://www.lcwr.org/lcwrsocialjustice/eoclentcalendar2010.pdf

Carbon Fast – Day 2

Turn down your thermostat by at least one degree.  Aim for 68 degrees (or lower) during the day and 60 degrees at night.  Program your thermostat if you can.  Always turn the heat off when you leave home.

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Daily action from http://www.lcwr.org/lcwrsocialjustice/eoclentcalendar2010.pdf

Carbon Fast – Day 1

Remove one light bulb from your home and live without its light for the next 40 days.  This will decrease your energy use and act as a reminder of your Lenten Carbon Fast.

If you pick a light in some obscure part of your living space that you never use anyway, that kind-of defeats the purpose here.  What light are you removing and why?

I put tape over the light switch for the overhead light in our kitchen and used the pull chain to turn off the light that is part of the ceiling fan in our bedroom.  Why two lights?  Well, I picked the kitchen light, but my husband wasn’t crazy about the idea, so we added the bedroom light as a back-up.  If having the kitchen light off REALLY isn’t working (i.e., if we’re cutting off fingers in the dark) we can turn it back on and still have the bedroom light out.

I wanted to pick a light whose absence we would notice, and the kitchen light qualifies.  I certainly noticed this morning, but it will actually become less noticeable as the days get longer and the mornings get brighter.

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Daily action from http://www.lcwr.org/lcwrsocialjustice/eoclentcalendar2010.pdf

Carbon Fast

About a year ago, I heard about some churches observing a Lenten Carbon Fast.  This year, my church joins others in this important and meaningful Lenten journey.  Whether or not you are religious or observe Lent, consider taking some or all of the suggested daily actions.

I will post one action a day for the next 40+ days (because you can be green on Sundays, too!) in addition to my regular posting.  If you would like to view the entire Carbon Fast calendar, click here.  While I love saving trees, you may want to print this (double-sided, of course) and post it on your refrigerator, or somewhere you will see it every day.

If you’re already taking a suggested action, please leave comments on that day’s posting about how you work that action into your daily life and/or how you might take it further.

Simple prosperity: A book review

At the same time  I wrote this post, I started reading Simple Prosperity by David Wann.  Yes, that was over three months ago.  Yes, I have had the book checked out from the library the entire time.  I am THAT woman, the one who keeps books forever which is unfair to other library patrons.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the book.  It was an easy read, not too long (I really have no excuse for taking three months to read it), and packed with thought-provoking statements and questions.  Each chapter starts with a few quotations:

Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like. (Will Rogers)

A [person’s] health can be judged by which [s/he] takes two at a time — pills or stairs. (Joan Welsh)

When you have Enough, you have everything you need.  There’s nothing extra to weight you down, distract, or distress you.  Enough is a fearless place . . . . To let go of clutter, then, is not deprivation; it’s lightening up and opening up space and time for something new and wonderful to happen. (Vicki Robin)

David Wann is also one of the coauthors of Affluenza.  Of the two, Simple Prosperity spoke to me more, delving deeper into the issues first broached in Affluenza.

Haven’t read either of them?  Feel free to start with either one — I guarantee these books will make you question the way you live, the things you prioritize, and the costs of such a lifestyle.  As I said in my Affluenza review, it is important for all of us, even those with only mild cases of “consumption,” to continue to ask questions, learn, and make changes in our lives.