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While the real estate market is currently in a flat spin, housing is still a basic need. Choosing a home may be the biggest way you can affect your personal CO2 footprint. If a yurt doesn't meet your housing needs there are other low CO2 options. If you are choosing between a new and a used home, which is the better option? The answer, of course, is that "it depends".

If you live in the suburbs, like I do, the yard around your home is the closest you come to the natural environment on a day to day basis. This begs the question - Is your yard a natural environment? Author Douglas Tallamy suggests that the average suburban yard is an artificial collection of exotic plants which creates an unnatural zone unsuitable to native wildlife. In his book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens Mr.

Cordless and cell phones, laptops, digital cameras and camcorders, remote control cars and cordless power tools. Each of these devices rely on rechargeable batteries, which given enough time and use fail to hold a charge. What do you do with the formerly-rechargeable Nickel Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride, Lithium Ion, and Sealed Lead batteries? Recycle them, of course!

Step outside and take a long, deep breath. Was the air clean and fresh or are you hacking up a lung? Check the American Lung Association's 2007 State of the Air Report and see how the air in your town ranks against the rest of the United States. The report ranks cities' air quality based on ozone (O3) and Particle Pollution (Soot). In the 2007 State of the Air report Santa Fe, New Mexico ranked as the second cleanest city in the U.S. for Long-term Particle Pollution and 21st for Short-term Particle Pollution.

I hate to say it but, Compact Fluorescent Lights are not the end-all and be-all of home lighting choices. However, CFL's are much more efficient and long-lived than regular incandescent bulbs and have become reasonably priced. Yet not everyone loves the light quality of compact fluorescents. So, how do you find a CFL with good color and light output?

I'll admit it, I love my clothes line ... when it's warm out. But, in the middle of winter when the high temperature for the day stays below freezing heading outside to hang wet jeans on the line is a bit tough. Yes, I could set up an inside clothes line or rack. But I've found another option, I can use my clothes dryer to heat and humidify the house.

Starting January 14th, 2008 the city of Santa Fe, NM will begin weekly pickup for residential recycling. The hope is that a weekly schedule will increase recycling participation compared to the somewhat confusing bi-weekly pickup schedule. I know that I occasionally forget which week is the recycling pickup week. So, I think this could help encourage some forgetful folks to recycle.

Leading a more ecologically sustainable life isn't always chock full of new and exciting changes. Sometimes a simple, even mundane, tweak makes a real difference. Weather stripping and weather proofing your home and office is one of those meaningful changes that makes a difference, even if it doesn't seem very 'sexy'. Weather stripping is all about increasing home efficiency and energy conservation which is the easiest way to reduce your heating and cooling bills.

If you've been using computers for more than a couple of years you are probably familiar with the 'Upgrade Cycle'. Thanks to Moore's Law and the tendency of software companies to write programs that need ever more computing power to run, it becomes necessary to buy a new computer every few years. We are all familiar with one end of the Upgrade Cycle, buying a new computer. I decided that it was finally time to get rid of a Pentium 90 laptop and a 486 PC.