I have a question for you. You refer to your wood burning stoves in your original post. How do you think it will affect the planet if everyone went to a wood burning heating and cooking? The forests could not be sustained. They aren't being sustained as it is. Then what are we going to do? Do you cut your own firewood from your own woods? Yes, I'm sure for you it is more frugal this way but the pollution caused by this burning isn't good for the planet either, am I correct? Please educate me. Thanks ccacc123

As for the wood burning, yes, it may be great for blue angel, and blueangel looks at that as energy saving/green, but I read about a valley in British Columbia where many of the homes use wood stoves to heat or add supplemental heat to their homes in the winter, and the area has now been noticing (10 years ago already) that they have this 'haze' of smoke over their valley for long periods of time, and this is blamed on too many wood stoves in a little area.

My mother often sighs and says everyone should go back to the horse and buggy days, things were so much cleaner and simpler etc. I went to an exhibit on the horse and carriages of long ago, and one exhibit explained that if the people of today had the same amount of horses and buggies as the people in the late 1800's and early 1900's, we'd have a worse (more than double or triple if I remember correctly) problem with air pollution and ground pollution (all that manure and urine in the streets is apparently worse than what our tires leave).

I worry, I think it may be not only that we consume too much, but that it is becoming (with the wonderful advancements in medicine) that this earth cannot sustain the number of humans on it. Oh boy.

Will look forward to other people's comments, good and bad.

Blueangel, I'm not sure of the purpose of your post, did you want a cookie?

ccacc123 and Kioni, Wood is an okay answer, in the industrialized world we are maintaining our forests, its better than corn or cane for heat. High efficiency stoves capable of completely oxidizing all of the products of pyrolysis are now available (Rocket stoves and a number of larger applications) so less wood produces more heat and less smoke is released. Really it is a delayed solar method of heating your home, combined with passive solar and multifamily dwellings it certainly could be the answer we are looking for.

Thank you all for your input
I will have yo look into the
High efficiency stoves
I was wondering what BIG
changes you and your families
have made that are life altering.
I don't think we should go back
to the horse and buggy but should
look for alternatives to our dependency
on cars.
Blueangel

I'm a bit perplexed about the purpose of your post as well. What qualifies as a "big" change in your book? The examples you gave would be big and life-altering to some but not to others.

Composting is a HUGE change for this city girl.

Hypermiling is another BIG change for this lifelong speedracer. Sure, it's not as green as biking everywhere (too many hills and too much heat here), but it's certainly a big change from zooming around at 80mph on the freeway, jackrabbit starts, and zooming to red lights.

I'm proud that I've only used one paper towel in the last month. For me, growing up on paper plates, that is BIG.

If we tell everyone it's pointless unless they make BIG changes per your standards, they'll throw up their hands and figure there's nothing they can do. If, instead, we encourage people to start small (recycling; reusable towels, napkins, and grocery bags; frugal driving habits; etc.) then we have a chance at getting closer to sustainability.

I'll take 95% of the people making many small changes over 5% of the people making BIG changes.

In the end if the little changes are the ones people stick to the little changes are the ones that make the big difference.

Also, if the purpose of your post was to hear what big changes people are making rather than to get them to marvel at how great you are why did you start the post with such self congratulation and such deprecation on the small positive steps others have taken.

Thank you witeowl and brendan_of_bonsai this is what
I want to hear.

Blueangel

keep them comming

Hmm...

Composting is a BIG change for most people who have never done it!! Like witeowl said, a huge change for this city girl! I compost now, and have reduced kitchen waste, therefore reducing the amount of garbage that goes to the dump. I have made other changes as well, although small ones. I have said over the last month or two, since I started this change, that little things are the ones people will stick too. Better to change lots of little things and stick to them than make huge changes and give up b/c you cannot continue. Don't you think??

When I picked up the five-year-old from day camp yesterday, both trash cans were full of packaging from the lunches of 20 small children. (True confession: my small child contributed. I planned badly on Sunday; we left the pool to go somewhere else; the children were hungry and I didn't want to show up at our next destination saying, hi, we're here, what's to eat?; so I stopped at the supermarket and bought a package of 12 individually wrapped string cheeses. She had a leftover one in her lunch yesterday for a special treat.) If everybody packed a no-garbage lunch for their children every day, and their children brought any putrescible leftovers home for composting, that would make a big difference right there.

Unless (until) there are major political and societal changes, I, me, personally, one person, Alfie, can't afford to live somewhere where we can get rid of the car and still be able to send the children to good public schools and to have a yard and garden. But I can pack my children no-garbage lunches. (And I can vote.)

I think dealing directly with our waste products by recycling, composting, and evaluating excess packaging as much as cost in making buying decisions are pretty big for a lot of people. I suppose installing a composting toilet is the next step.

I suggest that choosing to live in a smaller house to reduce your household energy impact is also a big change. I did this inadvertently when I moved from 2500 square feet to 600 (incidentally moving from a place I couldn't afford to one that I could, which also has valuable consequences). I have been pushed to resist impulse buying and have improved my skills at giving away stuff I don't really need.

Most of the green stuff I do is not a big change,because I grew up working in a big family garden, canning and composting. It has been my own addition to start composting old fabric, waxed paper, all animal by-products (including clam and mussel shells).

Although I need my car for work, too, I am probably 70% successful in having one driving-free day per week. I think most people outside urban areas would find that a big change.

And Alfie is right - voting would apparently be a big change for 50% of the US population...

annebert - When you compost clams & mussels do you crush them first?

Maureen

Hmm, good idea. I don't and they just sit there - I'm more interested in keeping them out of the waste stream than having them break down. My landlords' two boys get really excited when they find a "seashell" in the garden, too...

But Blueangel, are you a freegan yet? B/c if you are a freegan, then I will praise you for being too green. ;)

Sarah

There are a lot of ways to be green. No matter what the scale, all efforts count.

My biggest effort was to take on the coordination of an organic community garden in Berkeley, California. That required monitoring the gardeners to make sure they followed the rules; educating the gardeners about organic gardening via personal interactions, newsletters, and meetings; maintaining the public areas of the garden; composting on a large scale; interfacing with the city's overseeing agency (Parks and Rec); plus providing a good example in doing a garden plot myself.

I volunteered my time and energy in this endeavor for three years. It was very rewarding to help people learn organic gardening and to see their plots turn into real organic gardens. I asked for one of the garden members to work with me in learning how to take over coordinating, a few months before I moved to New Mexico. An enthusiastic young woman, who could use the experience towards obtaining her Master Gardener's certificate, took on the job.

Lorna

My family is going the whole self-sustainable route. It's a process. We have a 5 yr plan and are well on our way in year 2. No more plastic, no processed food, no more microwave. Big garden, pig, chickens and turkeys, no dryer, eliminating the "stuff" that clogs up our lives.
I think the biggest problem most people have to overcome is worrying what other people will think when they stop trying to "keep up with the Joneses".

Brendan of Bonsai, so so cynical and no answer to Blueangel's question. What have YOU done?

mxbarbie -

Just curious why you ditched the microwave? Most of the reading I've done on carbon emissions encourages cooking with microwaves instead of an oven because even at 1000 wats, they use much less energy than a convensional oven. Unless, of course, you ditched the oven too...

We've been doing the big garden and compost thing and buying most of the other food we need at our local farmer's market. It sounds like you're a bit more organized than we are with the whole self-sustaining plan though!

I was going to mention the energy-savings of a microwave -vs- oven but nybrian beat me to it.

I like your plan, mxbarbie, I wish you luck. I don't use a microwave anymore either. I've never been too keen on them to begin with, seems a little scary to think that what takes an hour in the oven takes only a fraction of that in the microwave. The microwaves that run through our food can't be all that good for us.

Lorna what a cool opportunity. And I agree with you about all efforts count, big and little. I think awareness is the first big step to making changes, and then letting that soak in takes time. Unfortunately time is not something we have so much of when it comes to stopping or reversing our mistakes.

Just my thoughts.

I gave up my microwave, too. Do a search on the hazards of microwaved foods. The food is altered on a molecular level, which is not a good thing for the consumer. Nutrition is compromised.

Lorna

I did a lot of reading about the hazards of microwave cooking and didn't like what I saw.
I don't believe 1/2 of what I read as a general rule. But some of it was pretty scary. I was especially concerned when the OBGYN said DO NOT microwave stored breast milk.
It's actually a lot easier to do without than I thought it would be. Alternatly, we are eating a lot more raw food. Which is infinitely better tasting and better for us. My 3 yr old and I wander through the garden grazing like goats everyday. It's great! for lunch today we had handfulls of broccoli, carrots and snowpeas.
I agree time is of the essence when it comes to sustaining the planet and I have to agree that I don't think Earth was meant to sustain this many humans. It seems like every time I watch the news She is trying to shake us off. Earthquakes and hurricanes everyday the more they come the worse they get. Yet here we all are still breeding (myself included - though I stopped at 2) It's a pity that social conciousness isn't more widespread.

All cooking alters food on the molecular level.

Read :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven#Safety_and_controversy
It might clear up some of the misconceptions being floated around here .

I did not find that wikipedia artical very informative at all. It's main theme is that microwaves are better because they don't char your food. And since "char" is carcinogenic, microwaves are better. I guess they are assuming we are all burning our food everyday. They barely mention the effects of microwaves on nutrional value and on the changes in protiens and starches that microwaves cause.
I didn't quit using the microwave because I was afraid of radiation, I got rid of it because it was KILLING my food.

I encourage you read more on the topic of microwaves.

http://www.mercola.com/article/microwave/hazards.htm

http://www.mercola.com/article/microwave/hazards2.htm

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1825144/

http://www.healthandgoodness.com/nutritiondiet/microwave-ovens.html

http://www.bodyecology.com/07/08/02/microwave_dangers.php

just a few interesting articles.
Keep an open mind, become conscious.
11:11

Basically, people argue microwaves are worse than ovens b/c microwaves use "waves" to heat food. Those waves come from radiation to put it simply. Ovens use heat, not radiation, to cook food.

Sarah

All cooking causes changes in proteins and starches. Furthermore, all cooking causes changes in enzymes, which is why the raw food people think that all cooking kills food.

I don't see any .org, let alone .edu, sites in your list? (I, personally, me, Alfie, in my own opinion, do not consider Joseph Mercola a reliable authority.)

Mxbarbie, what does the 11:11 mean?

The list was just a quick google search on microwave cooking. I'm not suggesting that people believe all of what they read, only that they continue to read. Keep an open mind, come to your own conclusions.
Mercola has some interesting points, however, I don't personally trust anyone who promotes his own products while claiming to be a Dr. either.

When you start to become concious of the bigger picture, the 11:11 shows up everywhere.
google it.