Necessary change

Over on Alternet, there's an article entitled "10 Ways to Change Your Life". This is the lead: "With simple modifications to your daily routine, you can be part of a cleaner, more sustainable world." And here's an excerpt:

7. Commit to not wasting
Wasting resources costs the planet and your wallet. Let your clothes hang-dry instead of using the dryer. Take half the trips but stay twice as long. Repair instead of rebuy. The list goes on. In the summer, for every degree above 72°F you set your thermostat, you save 120 pounds of CO2 emissions per year, and if you wash your clothes with cold water you can cut your laundry energy use by up to 90 percent.

8. Take your principles to work
We must act as though we care about the world at work as much as we do at home. Company CEOs or product designers have the power to make a gigantic difference through their business, and so do the rest of us. In commercial buildings, lighting accounts for more than 40 percent of electrical energy use, a huge cause of greenhouse gas production. Using motion and occupancy sensors can cut this use by 10 percent.

Another way of not wasting is to buy a lot of what you need from flea markets, thrift shops and garage sales. I really like the idea of the money I spend going to a non-profit organization or an individual family trying to make ends meet rather than a huge corporation. And when people buy used items that's less stuff to go into the landfills.
~~~