Small Actions to Change the World #3 (Carnival)

I'm glad to be able to welcome you to the third edition of this carnival! And it seems like it's getting more and more popular. Starting next month, I will think about making this carnival a bi-weekly thing since there are so many great submissions that have been handed in and I would really like to include so many of them, but at the same time I don't want to make one edition too long. And it also seems that some of the submitters are becoming regulars, which makes me really happy :-).

Tupelo Kenyon presents Take Time for You posted at Tupelo Kenyon, saying, "Don't put yourself at the end of the list. You deserve to be first, at least some of the time. Don't let your entire life slip by with everything else (and everyone else) getting preferential treatment over your most important priorities. Their needs are important, but yours are important too. Celebrate life by taking time for YOU!" I highly agree, too often we don't think about ourselves and taking time for us. (Don't confuse this with becoming selfish, it's more about setting priorities.)

Tiffany Washko has some nice ideas on how to host an Eco Friendly Birthday Party posted at Natural Family Living Blog. It has some really nice and specific ideas, I might use 1 or 2 of them myself :-)

Louise Manning has some great gardening tips in 10 Ways to help the Environment in your garden posted at Green Garden Chat. At first it might seem like a lot of work, but once I think about it, I don't think it's more work, it's just different work.

Stretch Mark Mama presents a very short post called You Vegan! posted at Stretch Mark Mama.

marguerite manteau-rao presents Laurie David’s list « La Marguerite posted at La Marguerite, saying, "Our family's small steps to change the world, based on Laurie David's list, from La Marguerite's blog, relating "My Inconvenient Truth: the Daily Sins of a Green Girl Wannabe"". What a long list of nice ideas - have you started implementing some of them? Why not start today?

vivek khemka presents some really nice ideas how to act and make a difference in Ten Simple Ways to save the World - One at a Time. posted at The Red Pencil.

Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents Memories are made of the things we DO, not the things we BUY posted at Millionaire Mommy Next Door, saying, "Should we buy a boat? Or would we rather go fishing?" This gives us something to think about.

Toni presents Plants: The office cheerleaders posted at Happy Nest, saying, "A plant can help transform the dreariness of your work desk AND make you feel more positive. They're the office cheerleaders!" This is a really good idea. Fortunately, my boss also likes plants and has placed them around the office.

Patricia doesn't just give one or two ideas but presents 30 Things That Take 30 Seconds Each: Which Will You Do To Change The World? posted at Patricia. It takes 5 seconds to read each idea - for a combined 35 seconds for each action :-). Why not start now?

Stretch Mark Mama presents a second post with a really nice story (with a really cute picture) at Trash Mash posted at Stretch Mark Mama.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Curb Appeal: One Of My Best Investments Yet Or How I Turned $80 Into $5,000 With Minimal Risk posted at The Digerati Life. I've never really looked at trees in this way - what a great idea.

edithyeung presents How to Clean Out Your “Closet”, and Make Space for More Good posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act.. I think that cleaning out your closet doesn't just make physical space, but it also clears up your mind sometimes!

That's it for this edition of "Small Actions to Change the World". Thanks so much for reading. As always, I will end this post with an inspiring story!

If you want to submit a story, you can do so here by using the carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found in the
blog carnival index page.

Today's inspiring story is somewhat different than usual - it's a YouTube video. If you've never heard of it, it's about something really nice and simple - a hug. I've seen this video a couple of times and I've heard the news of this spread a bit. I've even seen someone doing this in Germany :-). Take a look!

When good things go bad: Re-thinking environmental choices

I've had several occurences where people try to do a good thing, but instead of checking the facts, they just assume what they're doing is the best way because it seems intuitively so or the media says so. This does work a lot of the time, but some things - some of them intuitively "right" things - might do more damage than good. This post is about debunking (or at least re-thinking) some myths:

1. Myth: Separating trash into as many categories as possible is always good. Germans are crazed with separating trash, often up to 4 different types of trash categories at home plus several others for other trash (like empty bottles - sorted by colour). And of course some bottles you can return to the store where you bought them. The fact is, in many big cities, the trash separating machines at the utility company have become so efficient that it's actually inefficient for the consumer to separate it into so many categories. Check out how your city/community does it.

2. Myth: Eating organic makes my carbon/CO2 footprint THAT much lower. It usually does make your carbon footprint lower provided that you're comparing to someone who has the same eating habits as you. But often it's the type of food that makes a bigger difference. Eating a salad instead of a steak makes SO much more of a difference than eating an organic steak.

3. Myth: Local food is always more energy-efficient to make. This generalisation is quite wrong. It depends on a lot of factors to see what food is more energy-efficient. Buying local and in season is a better guide to higher energy-efficiency. Sometimes driving to the supermarket to buy the food that is shipped in from Kenya is more energy-intensive than the rest of the supply chain altogether. The Boston Globe has a nice article on this.

4. Myth: It's ok to create a lot of CO2, I can just buy some certificates and it's as if it never happened. This is currently a very popular subject. But many difficulties arise and often it doesn't really work. Read about whether or not certificates live up to their hype in "The Big Carbon Offset Lie?". Here's one tip: Reducing emissions is much better than "compensating" for it.

5. Myth: Paper is better than plastic. Is it really? If you take a look at the whole life-cycle of plastic and paper bags, plastic actually comes up on top often. Read about this in a TreeHugger article. Re-Usable bags are usually better than either. If you re-use them.


These are just some examples of how good things or well-intentioned things do not really work. So, next time you have to make an environmental choice, check out whether the facts support your intuition. Whether it's traveling to a far-away place, buying a computer or even washing the dishes: Which choice is the most environmentally friendly?