What Steps Are You Taking to Better Our World?

We spend a lot of energy here criticizing and complaining. What I want to know is, once you leave this site, what steps are you taking to improve our world? They don't need to be political, but that's always good. In fact, mine aren't political, because I have so little faith in our political system. I posted this question right after Katrina when my husband and I made some changes to our living habits, and I'm happy to say our changes stuck.

Please post what you do to improve this world, in any way no matter how small. I'm looking for ideas, myself. Here's what we're doing:

1. We purchased a hybrid (a Prius) and now we carpool to work. We used to drive a combined 140 miles per day in two regular cars. Now we drive a combined 60 miles per day in one car. We're saving a lot of money on gas, but it feels good to know we've very effectively reduced our oil consumption. In the next few years we'll probably sell our Highlander and buy another Prius or a Honda Insight.

2. We recycle everything and only minimally shred documents. (Shredded paper can't be recycled, the fibers are too small.) We recycle so much now that we can't rely on our neighborhood recycling program to take our recyclables -- too many bins! So once a week we drive two miles to the recycling center with the Highlander, stocked with all our recyclables.

3. We donate to the ACLU at least once a year. I am on the fence about donating to politicians after watching the candidates I funded give up on election reform and fraud, or just drop out because someone told them to, but the ACLU I can always get behind.

4. We donate to the Humane Society and to Team in Training. My husband has run a marathon for Team in Training as well. Just two of our favorite causes.

These are the major things we do, but if you have any other suggestions for environmental actions, or other things we can do, I want to hear them! What are you doing to improve the world?

with a job, haven't been able to do much. Now, thanks to *, I am unemployed most of the time. My big thing is sustainable argriculture. There is apparently a lot of plants that are edible that are easy to grow. Our food chain is from Europe centuries ago. We have a lot of food we classify as weeds. Our gardening methods ruin the soil. And there are a lot of easier plants to raise then we currently have. So I got my master gardener certificate last year to learn how to grow plants in Florida. Very different from up north where I came from. Found a ton of unusual plants to grow and eat. Once I get everything organized, I will be doing a road show to show other people how to grow their own food.

Also just started with a friend an "art institute". We'll be teaching small classes of folks different kinds of art. Also, my planting ideas. Also started a garden club in western Polk country.

It's time to go local and see how you can cope with the country collapsing. Looking into putting in a well that is not electric. That way I can have water should the electricity go off - again. Lots of hurricanes. Looking to start a business selling plants, seeds, and garden art. The job market doesn't seem to be getting better.

It will go a lot farther than donating to the ACLU.

Because I donated to Gore and I donated to the ACLU the same year. Gore never made it into office and stopped fighting election fraud that year, but the ACLU sure has done a lot!

I'd say in the past six years, I've gotten a much better ROI from the ACLU donation than from the Gore one.