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Ok, breathe slowly. I'll return to posting about all things guitar very soon.

But for now, I want to talk about something very important, going green.

Apart from my musical goals for 2008, I've also made several goals to help the environment and to slow global warming.  Whether you believe in global warming or not, many of these also have a direct impact to your pocket book, so take a look at these ideas and see if you can implement any yourself.

1. Drive the speed limit. Did you know that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is equivalent to paying .10 more a gallon for gas? I am a notorious speedster. Not crazy speed, but I like to get where I'm going and not be in the car (usually, I'm going to work to play guitar - can you blame me?). So, for 2008, I'm going to try to drive 60-65 mph on the interstate and speed limit on city roads.



2. Recycle. When we lived in St. Louis, we had a great city recycling program. You didn't even have to sort the material. Just put it in the bin and the workers would sort. Where we live now, there is no recycling program. For the last couple of years, we've just been trashing our cans/papers/bottles. I always thought that without a city program, I didn't have the time to recycle. Well, it just takes some ideas to get you started. Here is a great link full of recycling tips.  One that we've started is saving all our cans and donating them to a scout troop (cub scout/boy scout/girl scout). They can take the cans to be recycled and with the money they make, buy badges for the troop or pay for a scouting trip.

3. Change completely to compact fluorescent bulbs this year. I've been using fluorescent bulbs for 2 years now (not one has burned out). We're nearly through all of our old incandescent light bulbs. By the end of 2008, we should be completely fluorescent in our house. Yes, they do cost more, but considering they last what seems like an eternity compared to old bulbs and the fact that they save energy, the decision is an easy one to make next time you have to buy bulbs.

4. Plant a tree or two in our back yard. Our front yard has trees but our back yard does not (tornado blew them down several years ago). A single tree will absorb 2000 lbs of CO2 over it's lifetime.

5. Follow my kids everywhere and turn off all electronic devices when not in use. My kids are like most I would assume, they play games and leave the room to play outside with the game, tv, lights and radio still on. My goal is to watch for wasted energy and turn those devices off. Also, I'm going to try to get my kids to understand the importance of saving energy by turning off the devices when they move on to something else.

6. Drink more tap water. Buying bottled water is trendy, but if you consider the energy used to bottle and ship the water and the material in the landfills if the containers are not recycled, drinking tap water makes sense. If you have hard water or need to treat your tap water, check out this Google search for water filters.

So, there are a few goals I have for 2008. If you're interested in reading more, there are several good reads on Going Green. Check them out!






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