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Be good to Mother Nature and buy Back America! 2009 04
Going Green, is the trendy thing do to. Governments as well as private sources provides end-less amount of information on how to become "green". Sorting through all these information and figure out what you can do can be hard; however, here are some "simpler is better" guidelines.
The easiest thing to do to reduce your carbon foot print is to consume less. The best thing to do to save the planet is not recycling or reuse, its conservation. The less you use, the less of an impact your actions has on the planet. This can be riding your bike to work or buy locally grown seasonal food. In this National Geographic article, it chronicles a family and their neighbor's effort to go on a carbon diet. By making small changes to their lives, they were able to cut down their carbon foot print. Peter Miller showed us how we can measure our efforts' simply by reading the gas, electric, and water meters providing measured feedback. 
Popular Mechanics, a good source of information for DIY enthusiasts, explains to us what we can do to make our houses more efficient. Again, these ranges from minimal efforts, such as turning down the water heater and cleaning your dryer, to installing storm windows and insulating the attic.
Reader's Digest published this simple to follow article. Questions such as should I turn the lights off when I leave the room or leave them on? Some folks will say leave the lights on because turning it on and off uses more electricity and shortens the life of the light bulb. Read on and you will know what the answer is.
Even IBM, the blue chip technology company is getting in on the trend. IBM is recognized as a forward thinking technology company. Its always looking for future sources of revenue. The company recognizes future revenue growth is helping their clients operate their business more efficiently. Efficiency is the best way to reduce costs as well as carbon foot print.
Even better then efficient use of resources, is to not use them. We can certainly go out and buy a hybrid Honda Insight to save on gas. or we can save gas by driving less. If Americans uses 1 gallon less of gas a day, we would save ourselves 360 MILLION gallons of gas. Conservatively at $1.00/gallon, that is over $360 million dollars EACH DAY. At this savings rate, we can buy back all the Treasure bills the Chinese government has accumulated in the past decades. Americans will "own" America again!!
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