Sharing Ideas and Inspiration for kicking the fossil fuel habit

[Orm Embar]

I'm bumping this over to WaccoTalk and changing the title. I am hoping that we can share what we are all doing in our own small way to reduce our dependence upon fossil fuels.
This question came about from a thread debating whether climate shifts are caused by human activity. I don't care to debate that question. Rather, I think it would be fun to hear what folks are doing in their every day lives. Some people are motivated by climate change, some by the need to protect our water ways or agricultural resources. Whatever the motivation, there are many ways to reduce our petroleum addiction.

What tidbits do you have to share?

Re: Will 2010 be the hottest year worldwide since record keeping began??
This is an excellent topic for everyone to chime in on but it requires a new thread with its own title.

Edward

Orm Embar wrote:
I say that there has to be some consequences to pumping to the surface and combusting dead carbon-based forms that have been buried and transformed over 300 to 400 million years. I'm not sure I want to live in a climate that harkens back that far. Regardless of my opinion of the effects human folk can have on a massive and complex planet ecology, I agree that there are many issues to work on.

Many of the issues that someguy mentions above are related to the use of fossil fuels. All of it has to do with making money. Since fossils fuels are one of the key factors, this might be an area where we can get past debates of opinions about anthropogenically-influenced climate change and start sharing what we are doing in our everyday lives to affect the very real and very clearly human-generated issues listed above.

Who wants to start? (I promise to chime in too!)
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[Orm Embar]

We do a lot in our family including eating seasonally and as local as possible, composting, avoiding needless consumption of plastic things. (this includes the hard position of asking folks who love our children to NOT give lots of gifts for birthdays or holidays) I like to cook and make most of our food from scratch.

The most important thing for me is refusing to feel guilty or pound myself into the pavement for the times when we eat fast food or buy the occasional box of plastic bags. There are so many challenges to living a petroleum-less lifestyle. When I am not meeting my personal goals, I just acknowledge "oh, I am having to get one more bag from the grocery store because I forgot to bring mine" . . . no need to add guilt or self-derision.

So . . . my biggest experiment and accomplishment over the last year and a half: Staying a one-car family. We have managed to remain a one car family since just before our second child was born. We used to live where my husband could walk or cycle to work. Our children spent many hours each week in the car, commuting to school and after-school activities. When our landlady sold her house, we decided to move to Sebastopol where our children's school and friends and other activities were mostly concentrated. This move meant that the husband would need a car for commuting. It took so long to wean down to one car and we did not want to go back to having two cars. Having one car means that I travel by foot and bike with two children to and from school, music and dance lessons and play dates.
The good news is that this has really been possible! I had not exercised for almost 10 years . . . I'm not a superwoman (although I'm starting to feel that way) . . . gears on bikes are awesome! Over the last year and a half, I have slowly increased my fitness. My children are being empowered to know the rules of the road. We smile all the time. (cars are just not as fun as bikes) I am getting great exercise in manageable bites, and our commute only takes a few more minutes each way.

To do all this, we invested in a long-tail utility bike and outfitted it with good components. It was an investment, but still less expensive than a car. I can fit two children and various other articles, from groceries to musical instruments on the bike. I have transported gardening supplies from Harmony Farm Supply, hardware, towed other bicycles in addition to their riders. This is the little bicycle that could, so to speak.

The down side is that I miss my friends who live in other towns. I can't visit for a quick cup of tea while the kids are in school. The buses no longer run mid-day routes between Sebastopol and Cotati that would allow me to get back in time for school pick-up. I also have to wait for the weekend to run errands in Santa Rosa. This cuts away from weekend family time. It can also be challenging to bring friends home for play dates.

We are managing and the ups outweigh the downs. (even in the face of all the up-and-down hills around here : )

So, what are your accomplishments? Big or small . . . it all means something.

[someguy]

Hey Orm,

I appreciate your input, but I thought I might bring up the fact that we already started this thread here: https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showt...ht=#post126414

You can feel free to copy and paste your response to that thread or leave it here, just thought I'd make you aware of it.