The little things

When I lived in the U.S. I never really worried about my carbon footprint. I was your typical American consumerist. I never walked anywhere; I drove. Even if it was only 6 blocks to Village Inn or Wendy's or something...I drove. When I went to the grocery store I never took my own bags...I used the ones the grocery store provides. I didn't worry about energy efficient light-bulbs...I just bought the cheap ones at Wal-Mart/Safeway.

A lot of things have changed since then.

In America, you generally have to pay to have recycling bins put outside of your home. I'm not sure how it is in every European country, but here in Bulgaria the government has--at least in Sofia--made sure that you can't ignore the importance of recycling. There are bins about every 20 meters down the street. It's very simple to simply separate your trash and make sure it goes to the right place.

Consider walking. The biggest problem in America is how spread out everything is. For example, when I lived in Colorado often times the nearest grocery store was a 45 minute to an hour-long walk. That's not very feasible unless you are someone who has a great amount of spare time. But if you can, you should. When my wife first came to the States, she was looked at in awe because she walked from school to the house every day. NOBODY uses the sidewalks (outside of major cities) because everyone is addicted to cars. It was around an hour walk, but she did it twice a day (unless I was home to drive her)

Paper mail. Who needs it? Snail mail is useless, unless you are sending packages. Go paperless. Almost every credit card company these days offers paperless statements, as do banks. Don't waste paper unless you have to.

Going to the grocery store? Take your own bags. I don't recall in the U.S., because I wasn't that interested in it at the time, but I know that here many people take cloth bags to the grocery store with them...giant purses, basically. Or backpacks. Or boxes. But take some form of bag/box with you to the store so you don't waste paper or plastic bags. People might look at you funny, but who cares? When the planet is a crispy wasteland, you can at least crisp happily knowing that you did your best to try and stave off the disaster.

Walk more. Drive less. This is harder than it sounds. Believe me. And it's not always feasible for everyone. But if you live within a 5 or 10 minute drive of your destination, consider walking. Or getting a bicycle. Not only will it save you money, it will help you get in better shape, and your vehicle emissions will be nothing more than panted breath. Or gas, if you had something potent to eat the night before.

Start growing your own herbs and vegetables. You might think you don't have space, but you do. Planting herbs and spices takes up no more space than a window sill in most cases. And you can have things like fresh basil, fresh dill, mint...all without having to pay for a glass/plastic package and wrapper. All you need is the seeds and a pot to plant them in and you can have fresh spices year-round. I particularly like having fresh basil, because I cook a lot, and I use basil frequently.

You might already be doing these things. Or you might be one of those people who think global warming and green thinking is nothing more than a bunch of malarkey. But if you take a moment to look around you, you will begin to understand that the Earth is a fragile planet. We have limited resources, yet our population continues to grow at a rapid pace.

I didn't do any of the above things before we moved. Now I do. And I feel better about it. All of my bills are paperless, so I'm not wasting resources. I take my own bags to the grocery store. It takes no extra time to sort your trash. Simply put a few bags under your sink or wherever you keep your trash and just make a note of whether or not it's paper, plastic, metal or glass when you go to chuck something. Put it in the right bag. When you take the trash out (whatever day it is), put them in the proper places. My wife actually has this funny little ploy...she used to charge me 2 dollars every time I put something in the wrong bag. I learned pretty quick that paper goes in the paper bag, not the organic remains bag, and that an apple core doesn't go in the metal bag, but in the organic remains bag. And I got really addicted to having fresh spices around the house.

Perhaps the most worthwhile change I made when I came here was giving up a vehicle. We live in the city now, so we don't need one. Occasionally we miss the convenience of having one, but we save literally hundreds of dollars every month. No gas, no insurance, no maintenance, no car payment. We take public transportation and walk everywhere. I'm not a very big guy...you can see in my profile picture that I am in pretty decent shape. But when I got here I was absolutely shocked to find that I lost 30 lbs (15 kilos) in the first 6 months I was here simply from eating healthy and walking everywhere. I had never walked anywhere in my life. Other than hiking. The first few weeks I was in hell. My feet had blisters, my calves and thighs were aching. But once I got used to it, I walk everywhere now.

Anyway, that's my morning post. Think about ways to reduce your carbon footprint. They might be little things, but every little step counts.