Consume wisely

A friend of mine forwarded me an article from MSN yesterday, "The 10 Easiest Ways to Green Your Home." It leads off with, "Being earth-friendly doesn't require going solar or growing all your own food. There are plenty of easy ways to make a big difference," then it goes on to say, "It may be a cliché, but the best way to be Earth-friendly is to cut down on what you consume and recycle whenever you can."

This is just the WRONG message. Yes people (Americans) should consume less, but they (as if I'm not one of them) aren't going to. Instead the message that needs to be sent is consume responsibly.

The 10 ways they list actually include several responsible actions that don't involve sacrifice, but rather a wise buying choice: buy energy star appliances (refrigerators, furnaces), buy non-toxic cleaning products and paints, buy energy efficient light bulbs, buy recycled paper, buy bamboo flooring - buy, buy, buy doesn't translate to consuming less, just consuming differently.