I was listening the the radio the other day (I think it was NPR one morning) and it was a report in their series on global warming. For this particular report they were talking about Food Miles and how the mileage that food travels impacts global warming and the amount of green house gases that we as individuals are responsible for.

Food Miles are defined as the amount of miles that food must travel from where it is grown to our dinner plates. I had heard about this at least a few times in the last few years. It didn’t hit me until an article I saw on Digg.com (originally on Treehugger.com) about how many resources are used in the making of Fiji water, that the processing and transportation of food takes up a LOT of resources.

The answer to this then is to try to eat foods that are grown locally. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem during the summer. And if not locally then at least in the states (I guess, I am still figuring this stuff out).

I guess that is what gardens are good for. Too bad its not hot enough to grow mangos and avocados.

i think that the idea of blogging, of observing the world, and commenting on it is interesting.  I feel like I have interesting ideas run through my head several times a day.  And yet my little blog is clearly not super active.  ho humm…..  but i think i can do it.  I think it will just take me a bit to get in a habit of writing things on a more frequent basis.

I rode my bike to the park and ride and then took the bus to work.   On the way back home, I took the scenic route home and got home in pretty much the same time.  Granted the park and ride is not that far from our house.

The reason i write this is because for me it’s the beginning of a big step towards walking the walk, environmentally speaking.  Growing up in Seattle it has always natural to recycle and try to conserve water and so on.  But in the last year or so i have been starting to realize that I can do more.

Part of it may be that I have been learning more about green technology.  Solar power, wind energy, green building, electric cars, and so on.  So i asked myself, how can I talk about how interested I am in these things when I haven’t been doing other more basic every day things.

Another thing that has had an impact on this change has been living with the boy.  Unlike in the apartments I have lived in, at our house its easy enough to begin implementing a more green life style.  Of course we recycle, but we have gotten yard waste bins for the garden, and soon we are going to be getting a compost bin for the  garden and some food from our kitchen (less waste for the garbage and free compost for the garden).  I work on remembering to turn off the lights when we aren’t in a room, and I am slowly but surely teaching the boy to use less water when he washes the dishes

The next step is to use as little gas as possible.  A couple weeks ago someone sent around one of those emails that urged everyone to not buy gas on the 15th.  The goal of this “gas out” was to make the big oil companies lower their prices.  What it made me realize is that the point of our efforts should not be to get lower gas prices, so that we can drive around and pollute more.  What we should be doing more of, is using public transportation and riding bikes and walking.  So this is the point I am at.  my park and ride is close enough that I can ride there easily.  And it doesn’t require that I leave the house gobbs earlier.  The plus side is that coming home I can take the scenic route (like I did yesterday) and get a little bit more exercise.

It was awkward dealing with my bike just because I have hardly ridden a bike in the last few years but I know that after this first week it will become easier.  My goal is to only have to fill up my tank about once a month, or less if possible.

They say the first step is the hardest I am working on taking the second step.