There is danger in reckless change; but greater danger in blind conservatism. -Henry George Change is the price of survival. -Winston Churchill Living Green What Is It? What exactly is green living? Really, it comes down to one basic idea: the earth's resources need to be replenished at the same rate that we're using them. That means caring for the environment by taking steps to save it. If you start to look at all the different kinds of resources we have - fossil fuels, lands, wildlife, forests, oceans, and air - you can see that everything is interconnected. Since that's true, what we use today impacts what we have available for use in the future. Going green is about making different choices, choices that will make us and our planet a better place now and for generations in the future. We have a window of opportunity that we can use to start healing and repairing and restoring our ecosystems, from oceans and rivers to rain forests and grasslands. Why Is It Important? Edgar Mitchell, an Apollo 14 astronaut, spoke about it this way: " In the 20th century, we accelerated with the power of science and technology into a non-sustainable civilization - our most immediate threat is what we are doing to ourselves because of our ignorance and unwillingness as nations and individuals to confront the environmental problems. To confront the excesses of our civilization, of nonrenewable resources and pollution, threats of garbage piling up and our oceans being polluted. The big problem... Is our consumption patterns; more is better and money is the only real value that can make you happy. We have to change our thinking patterns and our approach to this if we are to survive." Did you know that it took nature 100 million years to create the energy that we as a world use today in one year? I'm sure that you do know that asthma, cancer, and many other diseases are more prevalent today than ever in history. Many experts relate the increase in disease to the changes in our environment. Lucky for us, we do have time to begin to change our environment. Each one of us needs to be responsible for the choices we make. Each one of us decide things every day that can have an impact on the entire planet. Many of these choices we take for granted, such as driving to work instead of taking mass transit, or buying packaged food instead of fresh or organic. Decisions like this may seem minor to us, but they are anything but minor, especially when multiplied by the billions of people on this planet. Living green can help restore the planet, and it can also help you in many other ways: • Saving money - We are in the habit of consuming much more than we need. If we consume what we actually need, whether it's electricity or water or clothes or some other item, we will save money. Specific example? For every 1° central heating is turned up, the bill increases by 8%. Here’s another: Putting a water filled bottle in the toilet tank decreases water consumption per flush by 30%. • Community support - If we support the stores in our community that foster green living, we help those institutions stay profitable, we act in an environmentally and socially responsible way, and we send a message to less responsible companies that they need to change. • Health benefits - If we live green through cycling or walking more often instead of driving and through making greener choices with the food we eat, it will improve our health in every way. Many people don't know how to begin living green, but it isn't difficult at all. It's really a matter of making different choices about the way you do things every day. By the end of this book, you will have all the information you need to begin living green in every area of your life.

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