Blog Posts by Diane MacEachern

This weekend begins a chain of traditions I've been building with my family for twenty years.

Holly berries Early Saturday morning, I'll climb up in the attic and pull down the holiday lights, bunting, evergreen trim, and ribbons and bows we use to decorate our house for Christmas every year. I'll tap my "inner Martha Stewart" as I weave the trim around the staircase and across the balcony railing, then thread white lights through the trim to turn our day-to-day home into a holiday wonderland.

While I'm trimming the stairs, one of the kids will be out in the yard cutting holly branches bursting with bright red berries. The holly goes everywhere - in vases of other yard cuttings, around the base of lamps, behind framed photos on the walls, around the candles that are now sitting on the window sills and in the middle of the dining room table. All the while, apple cider, infused with cinnamon sticks and whole cloves, will simmer on top of the stove. In a matter of a couple of hours, it will

Ornament2Make "green" shopping easier this holiday season by following the ten straightforward rules below.

1) Don't buy anything that requires a throwaway battery. Batteries leak cadmium, lead and other heavy metals when they're thrown away. They usually come wrapped in plastic and cardboard, creating more trash as soon as you buy them. Plus, you have to keep replacing them; in some cases, the cost of batteries over the life of a product ends up amounting to more than the product itself. Solution? Avoid toys, gadgets and appliances that require short-lived, throwaway batteries. If you must give a battery-powered gift, Usbcell include rechargeable batteries and the recharger to go with it. One of my favorites is a reuseable AAA battery you can recharge in the USB port of your computer.

2) Buy solar- or hand-powered. Among your options: hand-cranked flashlights, coffee grinders, blenders and juicers. Vintage-style razors with replaceable razor blades. A French-press coffee pot. More

Rent a car from Hertz. The company's new "Green Collection" of environmentally friendly cars all merit an EPA highway fuel-efficiency rating of 28 miles or more per gallon. The collection, which you can reserve at over 50 major airport locations in the U.S., includes the popular Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, Buick LaCrosse and Hyundai Sonata.

Stay at a "green" hotel. You can check out your options at GreenHotels.com . Alternatively, enjoy a standard hotel that still offers you the energy-saving choice to change sheets and towels every other day. Inquire when you make your reservations.

Before you leave home, turn down thermostats and unplug appliances. You can set your water heater to "Vacation" or its lowest setting. Adjust the thermostat to protect pets and plants but still save energy. Appliances, such as TVs, computers and cable converter boxes, should be unplugged because they can draw or "leak" as much as 40 watts per hour even when they're off. Lower the temperature of waterbed

LED light Holiday lights brighten up everything except your electricity bill. They're so twinkly and tiny, you probably string them up without giving much if any thought to how much energy they use.

Turns out, the energy they use is A LOT. That's because standard holiday lights are just mini incandescents, one of the most ineffecient ways we light our homes today.

These little lights are annoying for a couple of other reasons. They break very easily; and if one bulb burns out, you often have to throw away the whole strand.

The alternative? LEDs.

Light emitting diodes, or LEDs, are exceptionally energy efficient; depending on the design, LEDs may use up to 90% less energy than an incandescent bulb to produce the same amount of light.

For example, the amount of electricity consumed by just one 7-watt incandescent bulb could power 140 LEDs - enough to light two 24-foot (7.3-meter) strings.

LED Features & Benefits
• Use 80% - 90% less energy than traditional

Pity the poor Thanksgiving turkey.

Fattened up all year, it's devoured in a matter of minutes, eaten as leftovers for days thereafter, and then long forgotten - until next Thanksgiving, at least.

If the turkey is the "Broadbreasted" variety - which most supermarket turkeys are - it's life has been particularly bleak. After being bred to produce an unnaturally large chest, its legs are so short it must be artifically inseminated to reproduce. Farmers remove the tips of these young turkeys' beaks to prevent cannibalism triggered by close living quarters in cages and warehouse. As for having the strength to fly? Forget about it.

Fortunately, delicious vegetarian options abound -- and you should be able to find many of the ingredients at your local farmers market.

Epicurious.com features such scrumptious courses as stuffed pumpkin and lentil croquettes with mushroom gravy.

In a Vegetarian Kitchen with Nava Atlas offers a full-course meal, including salads, main dish

Recyclecc Recycling is great, but it's not enough. We need to reduce the amount of stuff we buy even if it is recycled. And we need to stop feeling like throwing all that stuff away is ok, just because it can be recycled. (Lloyd Alter makes the argument more clearly than I over at Treehugger.com. )

So today, in honor of America Recycles Day, yes, please recycle what you can. But don't use recycling as an excuse to buy stuff that shouldn't even be manufactured any more, like throwaway water bottles, disposable though recyclable corn-based "paper" plates, napkins and cutlery from fast-food restaurants, and recycled paper towels. Use the day to take stock of what you're recycling, and figure out what re-usable item you can replace it with. Reuseit.com will link you to durable products you can use in place of your throwaways.

Climate change seems so ... global.

Yet many climate change solutions are very ... local, because they're based on the way each and every one of us uses energy. On 10/10/10, thousands of people are having 'work' parties to do what they can to reduce the fossil-fuel generated carbon dioxide emissions that are the primary source of climate change. Why not use the day to check off at least half of these ten ways you can reduce the climate change impact of your home, too?

1. Caulk or weatherstrip windows and doors. Heating accounts for the biggest chunk of most utility bills - and offers the most opportunities for money and energy savings. Did you know that the energy used by the average home generates twice as much pollution as the average car? Materials for the average twelve-window, two-door house could cost about $25, but savings in annual energy costs might amount to more than 10 percent of your yearly heating bill. According to the Department of Energy, if every gas-heated

As I pointed out previously, we're drinking the same water Cleopatra drank.

Water faucet That's another way of saying, the world just doesn't make more water. What's here is what's always been here. And it's what's always going to be here, even though there are more and more people using the limited water we have. Which is why we have to figure out how to make every drop of H2O count. In honor of Blog Action Day's focus on water, here are 10 No Brainer Ways to Use Water Wisely.

1) Give up bottled water. How many reasons do you need? Toxic plastic is used to contain bottled water. Bottled water generates mountains of trash. Making bottled water and moving it around the globe wastes enormous amounts of energy. Bottled water may not be as safe to drink as tap water. Here's the real kicker: bottling water wastes water. Two gallons of water are wasted for every gallon bottled. Stupid, no?

2) Give up the idea that you have to drink water all the time. Where did that notion come from, that