The good thing was all these new green industries would create bazillions of new jobs. The bad thing of course was that there was no one to pay for all this green stuff. Basically going green was right up there with going to bed early, eating more broccoli, and taking your castor oil.

Everyone knows going green is something we should really do, but we still drive gas guzzling cars seven days a week, crank our air conditioners up all summer to keep our homes like meat lockers, and live in houses that are much bigger than we really need.

Is recycling always the right thing to do?

You won’t lose this cell phone charger

Then there is the reality that every time I flip that switch at home my lights go on. There must be enough power. There always is. Companies like Duke Energy (DUK), American Electric Power (AEP), Exelon (EXC), and Dominion Resources (D) are staying up till all hours of the night making sure we all have power. I’m not sure how they are producing it exactly, but I don’t care, as long as my clock radio turns on in the morning, my beer is nice and cold in the fridge, and when I want to turn on my television to watch a few Family Guy reruns – produced by Fox, a division of News Corp (NWS) - there is just enough power for me.

Some of you may be saying what about your children and grandchildren; will the earth be trashed out for them?  All I have to go on is my own children. So at the dinner table last night I thought a family discussion was in order. Needless to say, my kids love these discussions. I can tell by their groans and the way their eyes roll. I asked my kids if they would be willing to turn the air conditioner off and keep ice bags on their heads, unplug all our television sets and video games, and take in three more families to live in our house.

They do it every day… Right?

But just because they don’t care about the future of this planet doesn’t mean we should all give up hope.  This is the only planet we have so we should find some way to take better care of it before it’s too late. We should all have a last minute plan for going green because right now could possibly be that last minute.

How about a few of these solar panels in
your back yard?

Could this kit help generate all the power
you need for your home?

Showers
Of course you should keep taking showers as usual or your will really start to go green. And not in a good way.  More in a fungus and mold way. But do those kids of yours really need luxurious hot showers every day… Cut them down to two showers a week. The best way to do this is to call your friendly plumber and have him make a slight change to the showers they use so they only have cold water. Their showers will be faster too. If they complain tell them that at the better colleges they have actual hot water. Work hard in school and maybe in a few years you will have hot showers again.

Cut your driving in half
Go to what could be called a three-two schedule at work. One week go into the office three days and the next week show up in person two days. Followed by another three day week, two day week cycle this will cut your gas usage in half. About two days after this starts up gas prices should plummet since people will be using half the normal amount of gas. This only works if you don’t take off for the golf course on your work-at-home days. And there is the small dilemma…  If your boss calls on a home day and gets wind that you’re on the golf course you may be on a five-five schedule and not have to worry about pesky things like paying income tax.

Omit a few luxuries
The next time you go to the store, just don’t buy a few items from your shopping list that seem to be unrecyclable. For me, these would be things like brussels sprouts, decaf coffee, and leaf rakes.  Omitting just one of these every trip can be a great help to the environment.

Stop contributing to landfills
Where do you think the garbage you toss out goes every week? You many not realize this but after a quick stop at fine smelling local place called a transfer station, they truck it all to some out-of-the-way place like New Jersey. Well, the good people of New Jersey are getting a little upset at this point and any moment now they may close all their landfills to out-of-staters like you. So before that happens, you may want to cut back on what you throw out. Get a few boxes of good thick, oversized plastic garbage bags from a place like Lowes (LOW), Home Depot (HD), or Sears (SHLD) and seal up your garbage good and tight, and then store it up in the far reaches of your attic, under your kids’ beds, or over by all that unused exercise equipment cluttering up your basement.

Now I feel like I have done something for the environment. I think I will hop into my gas guzzler, head down to the 7-Eleven for a few donuts, and hang out for a while in a nice ultra-air conditioned shopping mall.

Could a solar powered bikini be the
answer to future power needs?