I’ve been looking for hard luggage for ages, and this even had the keys included! It’s not precisely what I imagined of course. I was thinking more along the lines of a Marilyn Monroesque red, or even leopard print, full set, all monogrammed and 1950’s looking. But it’s adorable, and GREEN in more ways than one! (Even my incredibly fashion forward sister approves!) Such a silly thing but it made my entire week. The price for this little slice of happiness? Three dollars. Indulgent, no?

Ready for Blog Action Day? Great! We are all about saving the planet and staving off climate change in any way possible. Every little bit helps!

Here are ten easy things we can all do to reduce emissions:

Walk everywhere you can but especially if it’s less than 1.5 miles. The less gas you use, the less fossil fuels burning in the atmosphere. The more exercise you get the better you feel!

If you drive a diesel, look into converting to used vegetable oil to fuel it.

You can save your own used oil or ask your local fast-food chain for their waste. It’s a great way to ‘get off the grid’ so to speak and take your energy needs into your own hands. One more way to cut down on the use of fossil fuel and save yourself a lot of cash in the process!

You’ve heard it many times before but it bears repeating: Switch every lightbulb in your home to super efficient CFL’s or, even better, LED’s.

You’ll save money every month on your electric bill and be accomplishing more than you realize. If every U.S. household replaced 1 incandescent bulb with a CFL or LED, it would be the equivalent of taking 800,000 cars off the road!

Limit your red meat intake to twice a month.

Beef is only 30% of all meat consumed but is responsible for 78% of the emissions. Another happy side effect will be the amount of precious clean water used. It can take from 441 to 18,492 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef.  Hamburgers are the Hummers of food.

Have one meatless day a week.

Sample menu items: BREAKFAST – Oatmeal, fruit, yogurt. LUNCH – Salad, lentil soup, Pita with hummus. DINNER – Bean burrito’s, falafels, pasta primavera.  You can get more information and countless recipes at http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

Teach your cat to go outside.

At the very least get it used to something other than traditional cat litter. Most cat litter is made of bentonite clay or its cousin, fuller’s earth; both materials are extracted through surface mining, an environmentally taxing process. Meanwhile, because the litter is nonbiodegradable, there’s no place for it to go but the landfill.

A better option would be to use newspaper or commercial litters that come from recycled newspapers, wheat, corn cobs or reclaimed sawdust. These litters—along with the cat waste—can be composted, as long as you use the right precautions, and they provide a good use of recycled material.

Composting

There are many different ways to compost. You can bury your food scraps in the backyard, use community compost centers, worm composters, etc. If you live in an urban area there are even compact electric composters you can store under the sink for your food waste. This creates less garbage, less garbage trucks on the road, less landfill.

Buy and use recycled paper products of all kinds

Computer paper, toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, napkins and so on. Every paper product is a tree that is no longer here to clean our air.

Take your reusable bag everywhere you go

Between the trees that are chopped down to make paper bags and the natural gas and oil used for plastics, not to mention the energy expended in processing – those free bags at the grocery store aren’t much of a bargain.

Grow a little garden of your own

If you have a back yard then set aside some space to grow your favorite veggies. If all you have is a window ledge try growing your own fresh herbs. You’ll save emissions by having less food transported to you and everything grown by your own hand tastes that much better.

Find out more at www.blogactionday.org