Saving the world, one behavior at a time

I don't watch a lot of TV. What I do watch tends to be mind numbing stuff before bed. I do like to watch the tele when I am chopping up veggies etc for dinner. I watch HGTV or Fine living absent mindedly while I chop and saute and soak and bake. On a couple of occasions I have caught this Aussie show where two families are competing to meet environmental challenges. I've only seen it 2x but on the first occasion they were working to reduce their water consumption and had just earned back their electrical power (they had to meet some goal to get that returned) and on the second occasion they were working to reduce their fuel usage. I found myself wondering what we could do to further reduce our consumptions.

I'm not so certain I want to give up my hot shower though.... so much for dedication to cause!!

Banana has become a bit of an environmental... well... nazi. She has apparently engaged in some seriously heated debates at school about how clear cutting is bad, recycling and several other issues. So much so that it is noted on her report card that the class has "enjoyed" her environmental awareness. Hmmmm. With this in mind and our movement towards self-instructed learning, she and I are devising a scientific experiment. (It would make me a very happy woman if I can turn my daughter into a fellow science junkie. Afterall she comes by it naturally.... DH is a scientist and I would classify myself as a scientist hiding in a educator's job). We recycle at our house but I have to admit, we are a bit lazy about it. So we are going to measure the weight of garbage that is produced in our house each week and then the weight of recycling we also produce currently. Next we are going to implement several variables in an effort to reduce our garbage creation by 1/2... or maybe to meet a specific guideline. We haven't set our specific goal of how much garbage we are allowed yet. Our garbage reduction variable will be: ensuring we are truly recycling all that can be recycled, reduction of consumption of non-reusable items and composting.

so far that is as far as we've gotten and we haven't organized anything for actually getting this started but I'll keep you posted on our results.