My un-named Aunt sent me a link to a Chicago Sun-Times article written by Frank Fontana from HGTV's Design on a Dime program. (We don't have cable, because we will not pay for television, so I have no idea what the show is, but am guessing from the name that it is about doing home remodeling inexpensively - which sounds good to me)

At any rate, he runs through the basics of carbon reduction at home, and does it in kind of a cute way:

"Chill Out" is his recommendation, meaning to turn your thermostat down 2 degrees in the winter and up 2 degrees in summer, resulting in an annual savings of about 2000 pounds of carbon. (so, actually, in the summer you'd be doing the opposite of "chilling out," wouldn't you?)

"Walk it Out" is his suggestion to walk more and drive less. Each mile you do not drive means one less ton of carbon is released.

"Hang it up" refers to drying clothes on a clothes line instead of in the dryer. Now that one set me on a search for the statistics on how much energy (carbon) is used by the typical dryer load. I still haven't found the numbers, so if you are reading this and you have a reference for me, please pass it along. What I did learn is that EnergyStar does not rate dryers, because there really isn't much difference between models when it comes to energy use.

Yesterday, I read in the paper that Ed Begley, Jr. has a new website called Fixing the Planet. I haven't spent much time there. My main objection is the title. In my view of things, the planet doesn't need fixing, we do -- if it weren't for us, the planet would be just fine!

So, with this whole global warming, going green, planet fixin' everywhere I turn these days, I am feeling very mainstream! With any luck, that will make our journey easier -- or at the very least we will have lots of company!