Some of the things I do for the environment.

What I do:
Minimize auto usage by walking and/or combining trips and considering if I really need to go there today.  Follow certain safe eco-miling practices such as not wastefully letting the car idle and driving around and around looking for the closest possible parking space.  I don't start the car until I'm ready to move, park at the first space I come to and turn the car off immediately.  And where possible, park where I can pull out without a lot of maneuvering.  Keep tires inflated and car in good running condition. We don't have mass transit of any use to me here, btw. If we did, I'd use it.

Keep the thermostat at 80 in summer with the ceiling fan on. (I live in a beastly hot climate.) I don't use the oven or even multiple stove burners in summer. I believe in one pot meals, which also minimizes cleanup. Keep the thermostat below 70 in winter and use the oven for cooking when it can warm up the house.  And always dress for the climate.

Have a water filter and drink only from glass at home, stainless steel bottles and cups when on the go.  No plastic bottles. I drink tea and other drinks made at home. The bottled beverage industry gets little money from me as well. 

Use only a low-energy notebook computer which I turn off and unplug when not in use.  I have no accessories or chargers left plugged in when not in use.

Grow some of my own food and shop in my local farmer's market.  Carry my own shopping bags and re-use produce bags.  Eat mostly meatless meals and only buy animal products from pastured animals. While I'm not extreme enough to make a big deal about it when eating at someone's home or something, the horrific, inhumane, unhealthy, polluting beef and pork industries get no money from me. And poultry doesn't get much either.  And I try to buy only sustainable fish. I just can't get the hang of cooking those whole Idaho farmed trout. But I'm trying. I also buy a lot in bulk such as dry beans at Whole Foods where I bring my own bags.  I also volunteer at a school garden where hopefully the kids are being encouraged to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

Shop resale. The charity thrift shops near me are really good. Maybe they are near you as well.  Look for those that take consignment. If I bought it over the last 5 years or so and it's not shoes or underwear, it's most likely resale. Especially, clothes, accessories, linens, kitchenware, furniture, etc. And I have a far bigger and better wardrobe than when I shopped more retail. And so much cheaper. There's also yard sales and freecycling websites. Make sure you offer your castoffs to others rather than throwing away.

I make very little garbage.  In fact, I use the bags my cat food comes in and it takes me two weeks to fill the 25lb size bag. I compost food scraps. And I have very little to recycle. Just junk mail, occasional cardboard boxes, the boxes a few food items like tea and pasta come in, vitamin and aspirin bottles, a few glass jars although I reuse many of those.  I bought re-usable bowl covers to use instead of plastic wrap for most leftovers.  They sell them in the same place as the plastic wrap in the supermarket and at Dollar tree. I also use cloth napkins and rags for cleaning.

I also use very little in the way of soap and detergent. You don't need as much as most people use. Why use a cleanser to strip your body of oil, then apply moisturizer?  My clothes aren't very greasy, so why all that detergent?  And I do most of my cleaning with water, rags, vinegar and baking soda.  BTW, you aren't supposed to fill those caps that come with the liquid concentrate detergent.  There are lines indicating how much they want you to use and they are at about half a capful. 

And of course, I have CFL light bulbs, recyclable batteries, turn things off, etc.

These things really aren't tricky or a hardship.  I plan to do a lot more when I get my dream house built out of energy saving methods and designed around gardening and other details of my ideal lifestyle. But right now it's just all designed in my head.  I'm looking to get a new job and relocate out of here. And for now, I rent.

Methane

So, I only recently learned that methane is 85% of the fairly clean burning fuel we call natural gas. I don't know why I never heard that before.  And methane the most damaging of the green house gases (which I did know) so apparently we are better off burning it for energy.

And thanks to mining and drilling disasters. I've observed that it just gets released into the atmosphere in all our carbon fuel extracting activities like coal mining and oil drilling. Not to mention by decomposing plant products and animal waste and the outrageous number of cattle we raise. And yet we do nothing to capture all that. 

Why would a coal mine just vent the methane into the atmosphere when there's money to be made from it?  Why wouldn't natural gas companies make deals with the coal, oil and waste management companies?  Why would they rather pump millions of gallons of water into the earth to extract shale gas and let the toxic water seep into our water system?

If we are better off burning it for fuel than letting it get released into the atmosphere, then it should be the law that it be captured.

So have you started reducing your carbon footprint yet?

I don't mean recycling. I mean reducing.

Everyone is criticizing big oil and BP, yet I don't see any more people refusing the plastic bags and/or bringing their own in the stores.  Except in places like Whole Foods, I look around and I'm usually the only one with my own bags.

And are you using any fewer plastic bottles yet?  Wasting any less gas yet?  Adjusted your thermostat yet?  Turned things off yet?

Also, here's a blog post about oiled wildlife on Grand Terre island from many days ago.  Why is the media only now telling us about this? Why do they keep reporting from Grand Isle?
http://birding.typepad.com/gulf/2010/05/day-33-heavy-oil-and-carnage-to-grand-terre-island.html

Couple articles on Haiti

Related to aid that provides long term and sustainable development.

http://globalpoverty.change.org/blog/view/what_bill_clintons_mea_culpa_should_mean

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124077512

And could they not be rebuilding schools, factories, churches, shopping centers and such that could for now provide heavy rain and hurricane proof shelter for many?

Microsoft co-founder Gates tackling climate change

AFP — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has broken from philanthropic work fighting poverty and disease to take on another threat to the world's poor -- climate change.

To hear the richest man in the world is working on the most important problem today gives me some hope. His pet project, terrapower, energy produced from waste nuclear fuel is interesting, but how long will it take? I understand the French already reuse nuclear waste for fuel now. Is he re-inventing the wheel? And Gates hopes to reach zero carbon emissions in 50 years. Is that too late? I bet his money would be better spent lobbying our idiot congressman who want to keep us using last century technology because it 'saves jobs.'

Haiti and International Aid bottlenecks.

Well, it's clear the 1st world doesn't get how to operate in third world disasters. Of course there's going to be fuel shortages. Of course the big trucks, planes and ships aren't all going to be able to land, dock, get through the blocked and damaged streets.

I was very interested to see last Wednesday that Al Roker said he saw the rescue teams from Iceland unloading bicycles. Did they hop on those bikes to get through the blocked roads and get to work right away? Because the first reports I heard of rescues by non-locals involved the team from Iceland. There's a reason people in these countries use so many bicycles, motorcycles and narrow 3-wheeled vehicles. Because they use so much less fuel and can navigate congested streets.

Why does all the aid have to go out in huge trucks? Why not load it into smaller vehicles. Hire the locals with their small pickups and other small vehicles. Pickup loads and even backpack loads of anti-biotics to the various clinics would have made a huge difference. Hop on a motor cycle, head out, ask locals to point you to a clinic, makeshift or otherwise.

Couldn't small boats be used to disperse supplies and crews along the shore of the bay the city seems to wrap around? The coast guard was there first. Don't they have small boats and helicopters. A report on the coast guard operating an aid station without a doctor, improvising with materials ripped from their ship was interesting. Too bad someone couldn't find them a doctor. They seemed to be doing good work and it would have been a good use of resources to send a doctor.

And small planes need to be used to get to the smaller airports in smaller cities, some of which are also devastated but receiving little aid.

And speaking of hiring or working with locals, they could have been used to clear helicoptor landing pads to deliver food throughout the city. I heard claims about fears of riots last week, but wasn't it obvious that riots would be more and more likely the longer people go without food?

And surely these organizations include people besides medical, search and rescue or security personnel that could have done things like start planning refugee camps. Last week, I mean.

I don't know why organizations that exist to respond to such disasters don't learn much from prior disastors. After hurricane Mitch, fuel shortages were a problem in Tegucigalpa and they had the benefit of there being a U.S. Military base with an airport an hour a way. And the ports were quickly clogged by aid shipments and remained so for months. And they are big ports, unlike the one in Haiti I'm sure. The ports in Honduras bring in the goods for all of Central America. I commented on both of those last Wednesday, especially after seeing local news reports of Houstonians collecting donations of goods for shipment to Haiti. Please keep them and send them in a few months. They will be needed then.

What should be done in Afghanistan

What I would like to see happen is for us to switch to the 'Dutch' or NATO method of protecting communities and cities in the most populated areas. This would impact the most number of people with the least amount of casualties. Earn trust, work with the Afghan people and hopefully attract Taliban members to return home to their safer villages and cities. Also attract NGOs to build schools and help the economy. As the area stabilizes, expand the territory.

Meanwhile, some special forces can be used to pursue key Taliban militants.

Also, I would like the U.S. to allow the organizations that have proposed it to set Afghani people up in the industry of making morphine out of the poppies they grow. This would provide income to Afghans, morphine to poor regions in the world where they can't afford the morphine made by big pharma and it would mean the poppies can't be made into heroin and won't provide income to the Taliban. The attempts to stop them from growing opium have not worked.

Also, if marijuana grows so well there, then they can grow hemp as a cash crop. It makes a better fabric than cotton and doesn't require pesticides or as much water, and since we aren't allowed to grow it here in the U.S., there's less competition on world markets. And interest is growing in the eco-friendly fabric.