Interview with Betsy Taylor

Nobody really wants to do 50 things to save the Earth, but most people are willing to do 3 or 4, if they know it matters and if they know they're not alone, and if they know those things are being done by others and are making an impact. So, for example, one of the steps that we're recommending in the coming year is that you try to reduce your driving by at least 20 miles per week.

The American population has increased by 50 percent since 1960, for example, but the miles we've traveled each year have tripled. We're just spending more and more time in our vehicles. And by consuming--by driving less, we're going to put less carbon dioxide out into the atmosphere. And on average, if you drive 20 miles per week less, you're going to reduce your weekly carbon emissions by more than 18 pounds. And that's a lot if a lot of people start doing it.

There's a lot of things you can do. You can drive less, you can choose to buy differently, you can--you know some of this is old stuff, but not enough people are doing it. You know, if a thousand of us replaced 3 standard bulbs with, say for example, compact fluorescents, we can reduce our electricity bills by $75-$150,000 and prevent the emission of 3 to 6 million pounds of carbon dioxide. So think about the impact of that if a million Americans did that.

Or you can--there are a lot of other things. You can minimize the effect of pesticides and fertilizers by reducing your use of those, which has a huge effect on water quality. There are a lot of little things and when a lot of people do them, it makes a huge impact.