The Ecological Footprint Quiz is a tool for calculating your impact on the Earth. It asks 27 questions about you and your lifestyle, and then calculates how many acres of food and goods you need per year to maintain your lifestyle. The US average is 6.35 earths, while the global average is 1.5. Given we only have one earth, none of these lifestyles are sustainable. What can we do? The answer is to start integrating sustainable practices into our lifestyles and that of the average American.

True or False? “People will never exchange their high impact consumer lifestyle for one that they perceive is less – less fun, less satisfying, less comfortable.” False. Most people simply need information and positive reinforcements to motivate them to establish new, lighter habits. As presented in the companion article, Shrink Your Ecological Footprint, time management is a key to living a low impact life and to developing new habits. Information is another key. The adjacent list is chock full of websites that promote the suggested actions. Here are some additional concepts to motivate you.

Here is a list of Sonoma County organizations that promote walking followed by walks gleaned from the iWALK website. * After taking part please let this blog (and your friends) know about your experience. We would like to hear from you! I especially enjoy walks that demonstrate we can get from here to [...]

Are you one of those many folks interested in biking but don't know where to start? Sonoma County is rich with bike groups and activities. Here is a listing of some of our amazing local bike non-profits followed by some upcoming classes and more group details. The Bicycle Coalition, www.bikesonoma.org, [...]

The way my college student daughter uses the web to gather information and communicate with friends and friends of friends is amazing. Though disinterested in computers and software and how they work, she and her associates deftly whip about social networking websites at warp speed - YouTube, Myspace, Facebook as well as [...]

I am quite intrigued how folks are using "new media" to implement change in their communities as well as globally. My favorite example is "The Story Of Stuff", www.storyofstuff.com. Since December 2007, more than 7 million viewers have watched this fast paced, funny, yet simple animation, including 3.5 million in [...]

Living Green Interviews, Environmental Event Calendars and Green Links. . . It can be hard to get attention in this fast paced world. With that in mind, Living Green will occasionally showcase green businesses, projects and a few events.