BeGreen and beat the heat!

Let’s discuss climate change. I live in Los Angeles in an apartment without air conditioning. In fact, I’ve never lived in an apartment with air conditioning in Los Angeles and that has been okay until about 3 years ago. All of the sudden there were rolling blackouts in May! May!!! It isn’t supposed to be that hot in May. Last week, in the middle of September, the temperature reached over 100. I was at home researching jobs and could scarcely breathe it was so hot.

This brings me to my point: obviously the climate is changing. Global warming does indeed exist. So what can we do about it?

• Conserve water and use hot water in moderation
• Cut down on your heating and air conditioning (Ha! I don’t have a heater either. I’m good on this one!)
• Use energy-efficient products
• Turn the lights off
• Recycle
• Drive Less

Now, I would love to ride a bike everywhere, but frankly, I am proof that you can indeed forget how to ride a bike so it isn’t an option for me. However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t reduce my carbon footprint. This summer I took the most amazing trip up through Hendy Woods State Park to the California Redwoods to Crater Lake in Oregon and back down through Lassen Volcanic National Park. It filled my soul with so much joy to behold the magnitude of such beauty and it is vitally important to me that I help preserve it.

BeGreen (http://www.begreennow.com/) is here to help me. Not only do they have an incredibly simple, easy to use calculator to help you measure your carbon footprint, but they allow you to choose how you will offset it. As I am captivated by the Redwoods, I will be purchasing Redwood Forest Stewardship Offsets. $19.95 equals the removal of one ton of carbon dioxide.

I’m adding up my miles from my trip and the miles I’ve been spending on my job search. I’m visiting Dallas in a few weeks, but am otherwise hoping the numbers won’t get too high! As soon as I find my job, I’m making my contribution.

I can live without air conditioning, but I can’t even fathom living without trees.