But meanwhile, if you want a sneak preview of the trailer of the No Impact Man documentary, which comes out at the same time as the book, click here. Exciting!

That's my little girl Isabella's Teddy. He's forty years old. Back when my wife was a little girl, her own mother brought Teddy home from Italy. He's so well made that he's lasted all this time.

Lots of nights we have talks about Teddy. Isabella wants to know about when her mom was little and how she played with Teddy, too.

As things age, they collect stories. Stories of our families that connect us to them.

In my own case, I have a pair of my grandfather's cufflinks and his watch. When I have to give a talk or go to a meeting that tests my confidence, I wear them. It makes me feel like something about him is there backing me up.

In other words, when things are made well, and they last, we can often get way more pleasure from them than we might from something new. We come to cherish our things. We come to cherish our lives.

Yet, these days, instead of making things to last, manufacturers make things to break. Everything from poorly made Teddy bears to watches you throw away when the battery runs out to cell phones and even fridges.

When you think about it, it's crazy.

Things are built to break or go out of date, so that we have to work really hard to buy the same things over and over again. Meanwhile, remaking all of this stuff plunders our planetary resources and makes for clouds of carbon dioxide which causes global warming.

What if we only had to buy our possessions once? Our telephones, once. Our computers, once. Our furniture, once. Our watches, once. Our teddy bears, once.

Maybe the objects we surround ourselves would end up being like old friends. Maybe, with having to manufacture so much less, we'd end up with is a more healthy planet along with a lot more fond memories.

And for me, one of those things is whales. The video below is a gift for you.

Meanwhile, what about our planet fills you with awe?

Yesterday, I mentioned how much fun my daughter Isabella had running out to a farm field to harvest vegetables. Harvesting? Shopping? Harvesting? Shopping?

Wait! Aren't they kind of the same thing?

Here are the excellent thoughts on the subject of a regular reader and commenter, who calls herself Linda from Deerfield:

Ask my little girl Isabella what she wants to eat and it's either a. grilled cheese sandwich or b. peanut butter and jelly. Suggest that she should eat her spinach, broccoli or brussels sprouts first and you get an encyclopedic explanation of why she can't eat it--it doesn't taste good, it's too hot, you have to chew it too much, etc etc etc.

But the other weekend we stayed with our friends Rachel and Steffen Schneider at Hawthorne Valley Farm (from which we buy our produce as part of local eating). Rachel took Isabella out into the field to harvest a squash and then they cooked it together. Isabella wolfed it down.

The picture above shows Isabella with a squash she picked out of our own community garden today. We also harvested some lettuce. Isabella can't wait to eat them both.

So, if your child is anything like mine, here is what you have to do to get your child to eat just about any vegetable: let them grow it for themselves!

See that picture? That's where I stayed last week for some quick R & R in the countryside. An incredibly beautiful place.

At lunch one day, I briefly met two women, sitting at the next table. While I was eating, I overheard one say to the other, "Do you think there will be enough shops in town to keep us occupied?"

Here we were, on a mountain. By a lake. With horses. And canoes. My new friends were only here for one day. But the only thing they could think to do was leave and go shopping.

I'm not judging. I just feel sad.

I think we tend to know what we're taught. And instead of being taught to enjoy our beautiful habitat, so many of us have been taught to shop, and by the associated resources use, contribute to its destruction.

If a mountain is reflected in a lake, and we're all too busy too notice, is it still beautiful?

Anyway, in line with the No Impact philosophy of using resources effectively, we're looking for volunteers who might want to help out from around the country. We're really excited to be at the stage where we can start forming a community around this work.

Here are the type of skills we're looking for, though the list is not exclusive. We could probably find a way to put most anyone one to work!

• Research
• Copy-editing
• Community organizing
• Event planning and production
• General administrative skills
• Social media coordination
• Publicity
• Other ways you think you could help that we haven't thought of

Since we'll be having a events throughout the country and since we can all telecommute anywhere, we'd be glad to hear from folks everywhere.

Drop a line to Stephanie by clicking here.

Thanks so much!

The vote was the first time either house of Congress had approved a bill meant to curb the heat-trapping gases scientists have linked to climate change. The legislation, which passed despite deep divisions among Democrats, could lead to profound changes in many sectors of the economy, including electric power generation, agriculture, manufacturing and construction.

The bill’s passage, by 219 to 212, with 44 Democrats voting against it, also established a marker for the United States when international negotiations on a new climate change treaty begin later this year.

You may have read a post I wrote supporting the bill here.

But how do I feel now? Worried. We've notched one very small step forward on climate change, but the bill as it stands, has a lot of problems. In fact, Greenpeace even came out against it because it's so weak (read here). The job is far from over. We have a lot of work to do.

My question for you is, how do you feel about the passage of ACES? Do you feel pleased or worried? Where do you think we go from here? Please leave your comments here at the blog.

The point is that this is not something that will happen to our grandchildren. It is something that is happening to us.

Have a great weekend!

This weekend, I went to a gathering of 50 people interested in advocating for clean energy in the United States. I rode my bike there. At least a dozen people commented on what a “good girl” I was for doing so.  

We poured ourselves coffee and tea into paper cups. We ate our potluck lunch on paper plates with plastic forks. We grabbed our bottles of water. We wiped our mouths with paper napkins and we grabbed our packets of printed materials to talk about how we could help push the federal government into making clean energy a reality, starting with identifying ‘green’ businesses to be our allies in this campaign.  

I mean no disrespect to the good people that gave their time on a Saturday afternoon to talk about the importance of renewable energy. Nor to the folks that put together these house meetings. The idea of bringing people together around clean energy is a good one and long over due.

But the experience did get me thinking about climate change and personal responsibility. It has become very easy to say that we need sweeping institutional change since my changing of my light bulbs won’t have much of an impact. But if we look at global greenhouse gas emissions by sector, is that true?  

It is hard to find consistent information on emissions percentages by sector so let’s use the World Resources Institute data to see what percent of greenhouse gas emissions are within our personal control: 

13.5% of greenhouse gas emissions are transportation related, the majority of those are emissions on roads (9.9%). So, to cut those emissions, we have some personal choices we can make: 

• Choose a fuel efficient car
• Choose an alternative mode of transportation like bicycle, walking or public transportation
• Choose goods that are not shipped from overseas or out of state
• Travel less
  

24.6% of emissions are from electricity and heat. Of those, 9.9% are residential buildings, 6.3% are oil and gas extraction, refining and processing and 1.4% is coal mining. So, cutting some of those emissions is possible on a personal level: 

• Weatherize your home
• Use a programmable thermostat
• Turn down the heat and wear a sweater
• Turn off the air conditioning and open the windows
• Unplug unused appliances
• Use energy efficient appliances
• Use energy efficient lighting
• Use alternative energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal
• Purchase renewable energy credits to help fund more renewable energy sources
• Turn off lights when not in use
• Use solar outdoor lights
• Use cold water wash
• Line dry your clothes
• Run appliances like dishwashers in energy-saver mode
• Go manual instead of electric
• Keep your refrigerator full and use glass containers for storage. A full refrigerator stays colder as do glass containers

For the 10.4 % of emissions that are industry related and the 5.4% that are related to commercial buildings, we can also have an impact: 

• Choose to spend your money with businesses and industries that are fuel efficient and investing in renewable energy and LEED certified buildings, producing products sustainably and reducing use of packaging.
• Encourage local businesses to become more fuel efficient. Carrot Mob has a great ‘reverse boycott’ model for doing this; ask businesses to invest in efficiency and for those that are willing, reward them by organizing a large group to come and shop there on a set day at a set time.
• Ask your city council and county board of supervisors to set minimum LEED standards for new buildings.

Land use changes like deforestation account for 18.2% of emissions. That may seem out of our control if we don’t live in a forested area, but it’s not: 

• Stop buying paper products made from virgin wood; choose toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, napkins and paper made from 100% post-consumer waste.
• Use cloth instead of paper for napkins and towels
• Eat less meat. Forests are being clear cut to raise cattle or their feed. If you choose to eat meat, find local sources of grass fed beef.
• Avoid products that contain palm oil
• If you choose to drink coffee and eat chocolate, find sources of sustainably grown beans.
• Use reusable bags instead of paper
• Always print double-sided on paper made from recycled materials
• Stop junk mail. This insidious industry destroys around 100 million trees a year. Use services like Catalogue Choice, Green Dimes and others let you opt out of all kinds of junk, including credit card offers.

Agricultural emissions are 13.5% of global totals. 6% of that is soil management using petroleum and nitrogen based fertilizers and pesticides, 5.1% is livestock and manure, and 1.5% is rice cultivation. For the most part, we can control what we eat: 

• Eat less animal products. Consider making 2 of 3 meals a day plant-based
• Buy produce grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides
• Plant your own organic garden as a source of fresh produce
• Buy rice that is sustainably cultivated
• Avoid products made with high fructose corn syrup, canola oil or soy unless they are organic
• Avoid foods like boxed cereal that take more energy to create and package than they produce

3.6% of emissions come from waste. Here, too, we can have an impact: 

• Buy fewer packaged goods
• Buy less in general
• Buy from the bulk bins
• Buy reusable instead of disposable
• Recycle
• Compost. Organic matter in landfills is a source of methane. Organic matter in your compost bin is a source of plant food.
• Ask your city council to ban plastic bags
• Use reusable bags for all of your shopping
• If you live in a country with potable water that comes out of the faucet, STOP BUYING BOTTLED WATER!

Yes, we need institutional change. We need to have government investment in clean, renewable energy sources and regulations that set higher CAFE and efficiency standards. We need to stop the development of new coal-fired power plants and oil exploration. Federal, state and local governments need to incentivize individual and corporate efficiency like weatherization, plug-in hybrids and efficiency retrofitting.  

The EPA is currently working on a report to inventory emissions sources and sinks in the U.S. Hopefully, this is to assess how the EPA can best regulate and reduce emissions. And while this is happening, there is much we can each do, as individuals, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.