New Beginnings

I got a very needed kick in the pants after reading Amy Karol’s recent post about greening her family. Although I earn my salary (so-to-speak) as a Marketing Ho Jill-of-all-Trades, most of my education is in environmental biology (hence my passion for Al Gore for the past 18 years). Before I grew old and cynical, I was an idealist that was going to change the world. Now, as a beat up old drunk (in recovery), I just can’t afford to live a mediocre semi-green life. So, instead of actually talking about being an environmentally conscious citizen, I’m taking an aggressive, action-oriented stance on cleaning up my family and our way of life. Realistically and simply. I’m not going for pie-in-the-sky perfection, here….just an honest appraisal of how my family consumes and a plan for making us better. I’m starting with the little things like getting rid of my daughter’s toxic sippy cups and replacing them with a cleaner, safer versions; knitting up some net grocery bags out of some hemp yarn that I already have in my stash; buying all my fruits and vegetable locally; joining the local co-op; using a stainless steel coffee cup instead of paper; and commuting to work at least 2-3 times per week. Below are just a few of the resources I’ve used and thought you may be interested in:

Listen:
http://www.lime.com/radio/the_lazy_environmentalist/podcast/feed
http://www.grist.org/podcast/weekly/2007/07/30/
http://www.personallifemedia.com/podcasts/living-green/living-green-show.html

Watch:
An Inconvenient Truth
Who Killed the Electric Car?

Home: Make/Grow it yourself:
The Organic Home Garden
Sewing 101
The Crafter’s Companion
Amy Butler’s In Stitches
Simple Sewing with a French Twist

Read:
Earth in the Balance
The Lorax
The Simple Living Guide
The Green Book
The Simple Home

Business:
http://www.flowidealism.org/splash.html
http://rusty.zaadz.com
http://infocommblog.org/communityserver/blogs/greenav/default.aspx
http://www.greenbiz.com/
http://makemesustainable.com

Kids:
http://www.energyhog.org/
http://myabodo.com/
http://www.plumorganics.com/

Online:
http://www.thegreenguide.com
http://www.idealbite.com/
http://sewgreen.blogspot.com/
http://www.treehugger.com/
http://playgreen.org/
http://www.thegoodhuman.com/
http://www.grist.org/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/advertisers/yourlifeingreen/index.html
http://climatecrisis.org/
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2007Q2/bas_0507_going_green.pdf
http://groovygreen.com/groove/
http://www.ecofriend.org/

Buy:
http://www.newdream.org/consumer/index.php
http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/
http://www.reusablebags.com
http://www.greenfeet.com/
http://www.branchhome.com/index.php?main_page=index
http://www.greensage.com/
http://www.afterglowcosmetics.com/
http://www.alchemybotanicals.com/order/index.php?
http://www.3rliving.com/

Also, you might want to search my del.icio.us bookmarks.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 11:21 am and is filed under Activista (green and political), Inspiration, environment, family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.