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By now just about everyone realizes that we need to make some serious changes to the lifestyles of the developed world if we want the human race to be able to continue living on this planet much longer. Some people suggest that we need to make cut backs of up to 90% of our current environmental impact. Even if you don’t buy into that number (I don’t know that I do), you know that polar bears are drowning . Wars are being fought over oil and may soon be fought over water. Drought is afflicting Australia, the Southeast United States, and huge swaths of Africa, causing crop failures and contributing to the growing world food crisis. Even tourist activities, such as snowmobiling in my home state of Michigan, are being affected by climate change.

No one can single handedly “save the world” but it IS possible for one individual to create a positive impact and change the direction their own life is headed in. As I’ve written, inertia is a powerful force that keeps us from changing even when we know we should. One way to overcome inertia is to “put out” a big effort to get your own personal freight train moving in a different direction. I’ve come up with a few challenges designed to help you overcome your inertia and start to make positive environmental impacts. And the best part is, you only have to do one of them for seven days.

Seven Day Challenge

1. Go veggie. Switching to a vegetarian diet can decrease your carbon footprint more than buying a hybrid car (and it’s a lot cheaper)! By my math, this means that eating veggie for a week is almost as good as carpooling for a week. I’ve been a vegetarian for about 10 years and I promise that switching to a meat free diet will not cause your muscles to wither from lack of protein. Just be sure to eat some whole grains, legumes, and a couple of servings of eggs or dairy during the wee. If you’re already veggie or mostly veggie, take a shot at being vegan for a week and further reduce your carbon footprint. If you just can’t stand the thought of being meat free, at least cut back on your meat consumption and find a source of grass fed meat.
2. Turn out the lights. The No Impact Man lived for nearly a year with NO electricity. He actually had the power turned off to his apartment. You may want to keep your refrigerator and stove plugged in, but try living for a week without TV, lights, computers (you use them enough at the office) and all your other gadgets. Rediscover the fun of reading by candle light and hanging out at the park.
3. Walk, bus, or bicycle. Park your car and figure out other ways of getting where you need to go. If you live in an urban area with public transportation, this should be fairly simple. People in rural areas may have a very hard time with this (I know, I grew up in one), but even you can figure out ways to carpool, delay trips, or bicycle longer distances. But wait, “I use biofuels,” you say. Well, you might be contributing to the global food crisis. If you use pump Ethanol or biodiesel, you’re contributing to the problem, which makes me sad because I use commercially made B20. So unless you’re running your car on waste vegetable oil , you don’t get a pass on this one.
4. Eat a 100 mile diet. On average, each item on an American’s dinner plate has traveled 1500 miles to get there. That’s pretty crazy considering that most areas of the country produce a rich variety of food that is more than sufficient to keep us healthy for most of the year. If you need help finding places to buy local food in your area, check out Local Harvest.
5. Create no trash. In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage (University of Oregon). Try going an entire week without purchasing anything that comes in disposable packing. It’s pretty tough, but by purchasing bulk food items in your own containers (local co-ops usually allow this), avoiding take out food, and carrying a handkerchief to use for hand and nose wiping, you can do it. Or you could just…
6. Buy nothing. You can TOTALLY live for one week without buying anything. After all, in Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, author Judith Levine tried to go an entire year without buying anything except food and necessary personal care products. I bet you can even go for a week without buying food if you have any kind of pantry or refrigerator at all. You’ll really cut down on your garbage production, you’ll save money, and you’ll help the environment. Plus, it’s a great exercise in creative thinking to figure out how to make do with what you have or borrow what you need.
7. Get (politically) active. Individual changes are a great start to create positive environmental impact, but the real bang for your buck comes through systems change. In democratic countries, systems change is usually best achieved by making your voice heard in the political system. If this is the route you’d like to go, find an advocacy organization that works toward goals that you want to achieve and sign up. Make a donation if you can. For extra credit, write a snail mail letter to your elected officials (or even go see them or their staff) and explain your concerns. My friend Andy’s blog Elephants on Bicycles is a great example of a regular guy getting involved with his local system and advocating for change.

What I’m Doing

Now, I can’t just preach that you radically alter your lifestyle for seven days without sharing what I’m doing to decrease my own environmental impact and help the world in my own small way. I’m in the middle of my own 30 DAY challenge right now. Since April 10 and until May 9, I’ve pledged to live for 30 days on $30 of food. I’m doing this to raise money for an organization called Blandford Nature Center & Mixed Greens. Their work includes teaching young, mostly urban and suburban students about gardening, nutrition, and the environment.

I’m the first to admit that $30 for 30 days is not an original idea. I blatantly copied it from Evan of Hungry for a Month. However, I made several changes to his design to emphasize local food, community building, and the environment, which all relate to what Blandford & Mixed Greens do. I’ve written about the background a “rules” of the project on Rice, Beans & Mixed Greens. In a nutshell the rules are:

1. I can purchase $30 of food in 30 days. The only food I’m carrying over from my pantry are a few dried spices, for which I’m charging myself $0.45 for the month.
2. I can barter (i.e. trade labor) for LOCAL food, which means food grown within 100 miles of my workplace.
3. I can’t eat or drink any free food at my office or anything that anyone gives me (this is a tough one!).
4. At the end of the month I’m donating the remainder of my usual monthly food budget – $220 – to Blandford & Mixed Greens.

Right now I’m on day 13 of the challenge and I’m doing fine physically, but I’m doing FANTASTIC emotionally and in terms of my satisfaction with where the project has gone. I’ve been on the front page of the local paper, done an interview on the Mitch Albom radio show during afternoon drive time, and gotten more support and encouragement from friends, family, and complete strangers than I ever imagined.

Of course, I have to ask you for a donation now. If you’d like to contribute you can do so online through my ChipIn! page. You can also send a snail mail check to:
Blandford Nature Center & Mixed Greens
1715 Hillburn Ave NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49504

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Photo by Steve Jurvetson

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1. Traveling By Your Inner Compass: A Guide to a Better 2009
2. Traveling By Your Inner Compass: Make One Small Change
3. Regrets and Resolutions Make Poor Bedfellows
4. If You Want to Change Your Life, You Have to Change Your Mind

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