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Today's Inspirational Thought

"We spend our time preoccupied with the past, which doesn't exist--it's already happened. Or we are preoccupied with the future. It too doesn't exist--it hasn't happened yet. As a result, we miss the moment-to-moment awareness of our life and barely notice its passing. We eat but we don't taste, we listen but we don't hear, we love but we don't feel. We spend our lives lost in our heads."

John Daido Loori
The Zen of Creativity

Pick your green battles

By Lori Bongiorno

Yahoo! Green
Posted Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:07pm PDT

The sheer number of "green" choices we can make is astounding. And, since it's totally overwhelming (not to mention impossible) to try to do everything, it makes sense to stop worrying about the stuff that ultimately doesn't matter.
Instead focus on the areas where your actions will make the most difference. Making changes in what you eat, the way you get around, and how you use energy at home (and work) will have the biggest impact on the planet.
That's not to say that small things don't add up. They do, but some count more than others.
Don't stress about these three classic choices because they don't make much of a difference:

• Cloth or disposable diapers? All diapers have an environmental impact. Disposable diapers are often bleached with chlorine (a highly polluting process) and ultimately end up clogging landfills. Cloth diapers are typically made from conventional cotton and require energy, water, and (sometimes) harsh detergents to wash them. There are greener alternatives, such as organic cotton cloth diapers and disposables that forgo the chlorine bleach, but in general, one choice is not better than the other so pick what's convenient for you.
• Paper or plastic bag? Like diapers, it's a toss up. Producing paper bags is energy and water intensive. Plastic bags are made from oil and can harm wildlife when they make their way into large bodies of water. Unlike diapers, there's another choice you can make: Carry your own reusable bag when you can. Not your thing? Reuse or recycle that bag when you're done with it and move onto something else.
• Disposable cup or ceramic mug? It's not a "major sin against the environment to use an occasional paper or plastic cup," according to The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice From the Union of Concerned Scientists. The group says throwaway cups take up little space in landfills and don't require much energy to make. But, it says, you shouldn't be wasteful just because a "few dozen (or even a couple of hundred) disposable cups a year will have little environmental impact." The upshot? Use that mug when you can (especially at work or home), but don't feel guilty when you can't.

Click to read more of this article:
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer/64/pick-your-green-battles.html