Carbon Calculator

I have been getting emails from other pledgers asking how to determine their 50% reduction of use of oil and fossil fuels.
So I started scouring the web and I  found the Nature Conservatory's Carbon Footprint Calculator! And here are my results...

I was rather shocked to see that the World Average is more than 50% lower than my own carbon footprint which is roughly 50% lower than the United States Average. Wow :-(

I got a lot of work ahead but at least now I have a better idea of where I am headed and that feels great!!

The power of kids

This is one of the most moving videos I have seen on YouTube. Having worked with kids for 11 yrs, I am amazed though never surprised at how powerful they are!!!

Inspiration from others

Today while reading the Huffington Post online, I ran across a great article about a couple in Dallas, Oregon - Amy and Adam Korst. They made a pledge on July, 6th 2009 to go TRASH-FREE for a whole year and they DID IT!!!


At our house we are pretty conscious about how much trash we create and....I am thinking that this may be a great companion pledge to our pledge to reduce our use of oil and fossil fuels!!

One thing goes another takes its place

This weekend I will be turning off and draining our hot tub :-( I know that this may seem silly but it was a hard decision to make. I love soaking in hot bubbly water at night under the stars, especially after a long day in the garden pulling weeds or crouching by my computer working on projects.

However, as they say when one door closes another opens!!

This week we got a new SOLAR DRYER (as my friend Jenn would call it). Fully decked out with all the bells and whistles ;-)

I love the way my clothes smell, just like SUNSHINE, honestly they do!! ...though I have to figure out a way to help them retain a bit more softness. Don't need to scrub our skin clean each time we put on a clean shirt!!

Starting Point

I figured since we have pledged to reduce our use of oil and fossil fuel by 50% it would be helpful to know our starting point. So, I have taken a few photos to visually showcase this point until I complete a more thorough audit!

We bought our house in November 2008. It is in a great neighborhood within walking distance to two grocery stores, a library, parks, dining, plant nursery, and local shops. Its a modest house 3bdrm 1 bath, 1214 sqft (way bigger then my preference) with vinyl siding, an okay roof, minimal insulation, and older windows. It is East facing with some big trees in the front and in the back which provide nice shading in the summer.

We have a super old and inefficient water heater but our furnace is relatively new and a bit more efficient, though our ducts are not insulated so we lose a lot of heat that way.

Our kitchen appliances are older but work well.

I am a big fan of organic gardening!! One of the first things we did when we moved in was convert half of our backyard to gardening and backyard chicken (and two adorable ducks) space.

Here is a pic of our seldomly used lawnmower.

We recycle and compost much of our waste...

For transportation I have a 1996 Honda Accord badly in need of a new water pump and so we only drive it when absolutely necessary. We have used bikes...mine being the black single speed; which I got for $15, my daughter's being the smaller bike and the beautiful Schwinn 3 speed belongs to a friend (I am saving up for a Long Tail cargo bike!!).

I believe we are off to a great start!!!

How it all began

As my 32nd birthday approached I starting looking for ways I could make my birthday meaningful by contributing to the relief efforts of the BP oil disaster. I went to 350.org and there I found a link to the Hands Across the Sand website, which was calling for people to gather peacefully to join hands on June 26th, 2010 with a clear message: NO to offshore drilling, YES to clean and renewable energy!

At the time there were only 4 states that were organizing a Hands event. I decided to organize an event here in Salt Lake City, UT and signed up.

Several days later, Salt Lake City had its own oil disaster when a Chevron pipeline broke spewing an estimated 20,000 gallons of oil into the Red Butte Creek, which made its way to our beloved Liberty Park and continued down to reach the Jordan River which runs into the Great Salt Lake.

I emailed the founder of Hands Across the Sand, David Rauschkolb and informed him of our own oil disaster and we moved the location of the Utah event to Liberty Park.

With less than two weeks left till June 26th...I began to push hard to get the ball rolling. With the help of some wonderful volunteers, we were a GO with a stellar line-up of presenters, such as Seth Walker: neo-beat poet, Tim DeChristopher: climate activist, Brian Moench: Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Peter Hayes: Citizens Response Committee, and Alyssa Kay: local resident affected by the Chevron oil disaster. Plus several sponsors - Ibean Inspired, Urban Village Cooperative, Sustain Utah, Students Revolutionary Union of UVU.

As organizers for Hands Across the Sand began to pour in from all over the world...we began discussing NEXT STEPS. A pledge for reducing our use of oil and fossil fuel by 10% was suggested. Personally, I do not know what 10% looks like and so I suggested a simpler, easier to understand number and thus was born the 50% NOW pledge!!

Oh and the Hands Across the Sand event? We had over 150 participants and it was AMAZING!!