A Green Life inspired by the Sierra Club

Happy New Year everyone.? Here’s a list of 15 resolutions you can adopt to help yourself and the planet.

1.? Keep the TV Off — conserve electricity, and more importantly, get outside! (despite the cold) to get your body moving and enjoy the beauty of nature

2.? Make Dinner Tonight — use local, organic products to cook a healthful meal, saving on money and gas, filling your fridge with yummy leftovers

3.? Take a Shorter Shower — think of all the water you’ll save by shaving two minutes off your daily ablutions . . . lather and rinse, no need to repeat

4.? Clean Our Your Closet — donate clothes you no longer wear, clearing out clutter and giving back to the community

5.? Drop that Paper Towel — a regular cloth towel does the same job and has the benefit of re-use again and again

6.? Cut Back on Driving — we do live in the suburbs, but when you can walk or bike, carpool, or organize your errands to limit gas use and dependency

7.? Sponsor a Wild Animal — become an active participant in preserving our wildlands and wildlife, your choice

8.? Recycle, recycle, recycle — keep paper separate from plastic and both separate from trash; look into your town’s recycling program

9.? Turn Down Your Thermostats — get more use out of that winter sweater, save energy, lower your bills . . . check not only the heat and hot water settings, but your fridge as well

10.? Protect Clean Air — visit Beyond Coal website and sign the petition, donate funds, or volunteer time to fight for clean air throughout the year

11.? Make a Compost Bin — while we aspire to cut down of food waste overall, sometimes we have some . . . why not send it back into the ground as healthy nutrients for your plants and flowers!

12.? Invest in Rechargeable Batteries — we go through AA’s quicker than we know and don’t always dispose of them properly

13.? Switch to Reusable Bags — Plastic is Out, Reusable is In!? put them everywhere, keep them handy so you’re never without

14.? Donate Blood — find the nearest Red Cross and make an appointment today

15.? Clean Up Your Neighborhood — take a walk around, bag in hand, collect what you see

?Hope for Our Planet

In the battle to limit the risks of climate change, the single most important promising near-term strategy, it’s clear, involves the world’s immense tropical forests, saving the ones we have left and letting new ones grow.? Trees play a major part in the carbon cycle, pulling carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from the air and locking it away in their wood and in the soil.? When tress are burned, therefore, the carbon they’ve stored gets released into the environment.? Over time, across the globe, we’ve cut down at least 3/4 of the forests . . . yet, with recent signs of progress, environmental groups are permitting themselves a burst of optimism.? Countries that serve as homes to tropical forests, such as Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Brazil, are reducing the cutting of their trees with plans to cease completely.? Even better, there are plans to regrow much of the forests lost, providing methods to keep carbon dioxide in long-term storage.? Read the success stories here.