Green things!

It's been rainy and warm a lot the past few days and that precious green creep of the spring grass coming in has been making me smile. It's amazing how spring makes things so happy in so many ways!

Found a couple interesting Green living websites over the past few days too.

The first one 18seconds.org (apparently that's how long it takes to change a light bulb - who knew?) is about compact florescent light bulbs. I was glad to find it actually because we switched a bunch of our light bulbs out for CFL's but then heard from Stacy that they contained mercury which is really bad. But the website explains that a) it's a very small amount of mercury, and b) if you dispose of the bulbs properly they reclaim the mercury and it never goes out into the environment. I've added a badge down the right side of my page that's supposed to track how many people in your city have bought CFL's and the positive impact that's making.

The other thing I found through my friend Alexis' blog was Colin Beavan's blog about his year-long "no impact man" experiment. He's a writer in NYC and trying to live with his wife, 2 year old daughter and their dog and produce no net impact on the environment. So super reducing - no buying new stuff, food local to 250 miles, etc, and participating in trash pickups and charity or such to negate the impactful things they can't give up or get rid of. The whole thing is going to be a book and a documentary too. The idea also is not that they necessarily live like this forever, but that by completely committing to the experiment they will really know what they NEED to live and what they don't. Makes my few spiffy light bulbs look paltry by comparison and makes me feel a little guilty about going clothes shopping last weekend. He's getting backlash about it being a publicity stunt and such, but sheesh he's doing it, so that much less impact on the world, plus anything that gets ideas out there for people to consider - that seems more important to me, so I applaud it.