Doing more...and making it easy

In his May 27th posting on The Green Skeptic (http://greenskeptic.blogspot.com/2007/05/global-climate-change-more-is-new-less.html), Scott Edward Anderson commented on Seth Godin's assertion that the real key to getting Americans to change their habits and and address global warming is to make it about doing more rather than doing with less. Given the pervasive "super-sizing" of our entire culture (have you tried to buy a small size popcorn at the movies lately?), I tend to agree. I would add to this, however, that it must also be about making it easy. Let's face it, we're a country of convenience, accustomed to things being accessible and practically effortless (which is where the super-sizing trend started, after all!). On that note, in the coming blogs I'm going to highlight easy, practically-no-effort-at-all changes we can all make that will reduce our carbon output - and even save us money in the process.

You've probably heard about compact fluorescent bulbs by now, particularly if you shop at a certain big-box retailer who prominently displays them in the lightbulb aisle (I don't know this first hand, since I don't shop at said big-box retailer, but I have it on good authority). But if you haven't started replacing your standard incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescents, you may not realize just how easy it is to: 1) save money on your electrical bill while; 2) reducing your carbon output. The New Hampshire Carbon Challenge (http://carbonchallenge.sr.unh.edu/ideaoffsets.jsp) reports that replacing just five of your regular old inefficient lightbulbs with compact fluorescents will save you approximately $70 a year and save the planet 750 pounds of carbon. And that's taking into account the slightly higher cost of the fluorescents, since they last dramatically longer than incandescent bulbs.

And just in case you're thinking "ewww, flickering fluorescent bulbs in my house?", not to worry! I have head-aching memories of fluorescent lights from my days in the corporate world, but that's old technology. The compacts cast a soft, white glow that's easy on the eyes.

So there you go, a change that's simple, saves you money and reduces your carbon output. How easy is that?