So many things we can do as individuals are fairly easy. It a more plant based diet. Go vegetarian one or two days a week. Or go vegetarian all the time this can really make a huge difference. Air dry your clothes on a clothes drying rack or a laundry line. This will save 6-10% of the domestic energy use in the USA. Not to mention saving you money and your clothes will last longer as well.

If you have ever visited a third-world immigrants here in the States, going green is not a big deal at all. They eat out much less, conserve water, conserve everything. So if you want to go green, the only way is to have your brain washed by living in a third-world country and recalibrate your mind about how to live. Otherwise, it’s like a weight-loss program: you go fasting for a while, then you go back to eat like a pig and the cycle repeats.

- to Crosby: “It’s namby pamby, followed up by the pseudo science of global warming.” Pseudo science? Are you living on another planet?

- Giving up meat is something more of us need to do. Methane produced in raising cattle is 13 times more damaging to the environment than CO2. It’s also responsible for a lot of the cancers in America. Don’t eat red meat more than twice a week and try to eat more fish. Your colon and your planet will thank you.

Going green is more than a movement. It is quickly replacing religion in America. It’s hard to believe in a church that lets priests harm our children. It’s easy to believe in doing something with scientific evidence that supports its “goodness.” Green living is becoming something more of us can believe in.

The synergy of going green and saving money is a sometimes on, sometimes off thing. But in the end, even if you spend a little more to practice green living, you end up with fewer health problems and save money that way.

By the way, there’s another synergy here: mindfulness. When we pay attention to our choices and really think about our actions before we buy, we are doing more for our souls too! It also helps combat greenwashing. You can’t just buy things because of a green label. You have to think about the claims and look them up.

Has anyone seen the Good Guide? It’s an iPhone app that lets you look up the “goodness” of a product environmentally and socially. See something touted as “green?” Look it up in the good guide first. If enough people make purchase decisions based on its affect to society and the environment, manufacturers will naturally make more environmentally and socially responsible products.

Nice post. Thanks.

TERRIFIC POST!

My favorite part: “…environmentally damaging products and lifestyle choices are only affordable because we’re not paying the full cost of them. While you enjoy your cheap plastic toys, people in the developing world are paying the price in terms of pollution, exploitative labor, and natural resource consumption.”

Thank you.

Start off with green steps that will SAVE you money, then use this savings to afford the green steps that cost a little.

That takes about two loads of washing, and I can fold down some of the segments if I want to dry something like trousers, i.e. have them hanging from the top rail, past where the middle rail would be. When I’m not using it, it just folds up flat, so it’s not in the way. I can’t remember how much mine cost, but it wasn’t much, and I’ve had it for 13 years (surviving 3 moves).

I fold T-shirts in half and hang them over the rails to dry. For work shirts, I put them on hangers and then hook them over my shower rail. That also has the fringe benefit that I don’t have to iron them afterwards. (I don’t even own an iron!)

The point is, don’t do the things that are super hard or expensive, and focus on what’s easy to do.

I used to bike 12 miles each way to/from work on the interstate, but I’m into biking. I wouldn’t expect others to do it. But what’s the point of a snarky, bitter post about how it’s too hard to be environmentally friendly? What was your point?

Public policy changes and laws are the things that will ultimately make a difference. You flushing the toilet a few less times won’t.

Is this good for the environment, too? Oh yeah, I guess it is. But I’m not completely mercenary. Having grown up in the Washington State public school system I can’t help but have the belief that “my very existence on this planet is utterly destroying it” ingrained in me, so I recycle like mad because of the pangs of guilt I receive when I throw stuff away. I have a garden. I ride my bike when at all possible even though bike lanes here are a joke.

Always cook before its get dark outside so I can cook in sunlight so don’t have to turn my kitchen light on.
Never use my dishwasher.
Never use my dryer until its emergency.
My kids cloths are always had washed and hand wash always give long life to cloth then machine wash.
My light bill never more than $60.00 per month because we use high-efficiency light bulbs in every room.
We never use air-condition because we always have open windows and if too hot then we spend lot of time in basement which is always cool.
We do not use paper towels.
We always use plastic grocery bags as garbage bags for kitchens and bathrooms.
We grow lot of organic vegetables in summer and save in freezer which last for many months.

We have always been frugal, so that has made us green in many ways. We’ve been traveling the world as a family non-stop since 2006 & live large on just 23 dollars a day per person.

We rarely take a flight yet have been to 4 continents & 32 countries & even though we have used every mode of transportation from cargo ships to camels, mostly we see the world by walking, biking & using mass transit.

Despite popular belief, travel, especially slow travel, can be extremely green and extremely frugal even in some of the most “expensive” places on the planet.

Now that I’m used to always hanging my clothes out to dry ( as most do in Europe, even in cold rainy climates) I’m amazed that so few do in California with over 300 days of sun a year. It’s actually quite pleasurable & the clothes smell divine.

We are thrilled to have less “stuff” & even though we never had that much, now we can live with soooo little & find it so freeing. We can go for months with just a small day pack/ carry on each. The more we get into simplicity & minimalism the more we like it, basing our life on the richness of experience & time instead of things.

Green, frugal & getting rich slowly can easily be very compatible things!

There many things which are economically cheap, but have a disproportionately high environmental cost: transportation and washing are probably the big two.

Also, I have noticed people too often think they have to go the whole way, all or nothing. I use handkerchiefs at home, but when I go out it’s often more practical to use paper tissues, and possibly more hygienic depending on how long I’d end up carrying the handkerchiefs. When I have a big cold or allergies, even at home, I use both because I just need more.
I have cloth bags for shopping and a bottle for drinking water.

Mostly, it’s about making conscious choices and buying less stuff. Then, when you do buy, asking if you can reuse: either buy something you’ll use more, or buy something second-hand… Or both! Straight razors, for instance, are still available and some people really like shaving with them. Some other even use the cut-throat type.
And when you do get rid of things, think about re-using (by selling them or giving them to someone else) or recycling.

The choice you make will depend on your lifestyle. It shouldn’t feel like a huge sacrifice. Actually, it should make you /happier/.

It just takes some thinking. There are many, many things that we use nowadays in a disposable variety without even realising reusable versions still exist and might work better for us.

I particularly dislike the organic food movement. Uncertified organic or IPM (integrated pest management) from someone who could be my neighbor over certified organic flown from Peru any day. Esp. when it’s in season!

Sometimes the time investment to go green or save money is deceptive. Biking to work is a great example. It takes longer, yes, but you are accomplishing more than one thing– not only are you getting to work, but you also are getting exercise. So that one hour investment is serving double duty to spend time on two things that you might instead have done separately. With bussing to work, as another example, again your trip takes longer, but you can use the time for something else– read a fun book or get some writing done, instead of finding additional time for those activities out of your day.

Because of the possibility of multi-purposing like this, the time cost of doing something more slowly is therefore not always as high as it seems at first glance.