Three Step Plan
A personal action plan for taking better care of God's earth

First Step: get personal

Get outta that car -or at least cut back on driving. They say solo driving is the single most destructive environmental practice by U.S.'ers. Every mile you drive puts a pound of CO2 into the air, requires the creation of habitat-destroying highways and parking lots, and kills .0001 squirrels and other small furry creatures. The World Health Organization says Global Warming will be responsible for the deaths of over 150,000 people around the world this year. Main culprit? Fossil fuel-burning vehicles. [see Global Warming as a Justice Issue ]

1. See car driving as a last resort
2. Resist purchasing a second car
3. Live close to work-or work from home
4. 40 percent of household trips are under 2 miles-walk or bike

Good housekeeping. We're not talking about cutting off the water when brushing your teeth-although that's a very good habit. We're talking about the size of your house, how much heating and cooling it needs, whether your appliances are energy mizers or energy hogs, what kind of light bulbs you use. Are you contributing to suburban sprawl? 35 percent of land-based endangered species are threatened by expanding housing-and associated commercial development.

1. Choose Energy Star appliances http://www.energystar.gov
2. Be sun and wind sensitive. Choose a house or apartment with southern exposure for winter heating; plant trees on the south side to reduce cooling needs in summer and wind-breaking shrubs on the north side to block winter winds.
3. Install compact florescent bulbs. Each one keeps 300 pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere over its lifetime.
4. Small is beautiful . Build or buy only as much house as you need.
5. Mow less grass . Cut down on your lawn size by planting native flowers or shrubs. Use a reel-type mower.

Eat right. This is not the latest fad diet-although it will make us healthier, while protecting the Earth upon which all food production depends. [see What's for Supper]

1. Less meat. Producing a pound of meat requires 2-8 pounds of grain, depending on the animal, with cattle needing the most. Growing a pound of irrigated grain requires 1000 pounds of water. Do the math on the pounds of water and grain per pound of meat. Meat-production is also one of the leading causes of water pollution, due to waste disposal. And a cow belches over 600 quarts of methane into the atmosphere every day-and methane is a potent global warming gas. In addition, meat production is responsible for one-quarter of all threats to natural ecosystems.
2. Buy as locally as you can . The average food item travels 1500 miles to our tables-and not by magic carpet, but by fossil fuel burning vehicle. Buying in-season ( no fresh berries in mid-winter, northerners! ) can also make a big impact.
3. Buy as organic as you can . Fertilizers and herbicides foul the soil and groundwater.

Less. Need we say more?

1. Less paper . Per capita paper consumption in the U.S. is 760 pounds per year-10 times the world average (producing a pound of paper from virgin wood requires 3.5 pounds of wood and creates 3 pounds of CO2). Find out which napkins, tissues, paper towels, and toilet tissue have the most recycled content. (NCP recommendation: toilet tissue is the only real necessity on this list--non-paper alternatives available for all the others.)
2. Less water. By 2025, humans will need 50 percent more than we have. Manufacturing, meat production, watering lawns and golf courses (8 billion gallons a day in the U.S.) are ways U.S.ers are soaking up water, to the tune of over 1300 gallons per person per day. (See our new worship resource Wade in the Water for an engaging litany on Christian responsibility to be stewards of the world's water.)
3. Less stuff . The average U.S. individual lifestyle necessitates the extraction of 400 pounds of materials from the Earth daily.
4. Recycling is only one part of our earth-keeping, but it can make a difference by keeping materials in the system and reducing energy consumption and environmental damage from mining, logging and drilling. Click here to see The REwards of REcycling.

See/learn for yourself.

1. Join an NCP Learning Tour to the Ecuadorian Amazon or Denali National Park to experience the wonder-and fragility-of God's creation.
2. Join an NCP Learning Tour to Arctic Village, Alaska or Guatemala to see the effect of environmental destruction on your global neighbors.
3. Subscribe to Earth in Earnest , NCP's bi-monthly e-newsletter (kchaffin@newcommunityproject.org).

Second Step: go public

Community. Work in your community to set up structures for responsible living. Are there bike lanes? Curbside recycling? Bus service? Limits to suburban sprawl?

Nation. Fight to get a sustainable energy policy and funding for renewable energy on the national political agenda. U.S. highways receive only 30 percent of their funds from use-taxes-tolls and taxes on gasoline. The remainder is a subsidy from U.S. taxpayers through the federal budget. Advocacy groups : www.fcnl.org ; www.environmentaldefense.org ; www.sierraclub.org ; www.foe.org

Homeland Security. Remind the people around you that over-consumption is a cause of global conflict-and is the prime reason for the $500 billion U.S. military budget.

International Agencies. Call for the democratization and environmentalization of institutions such as the World Trade Organization and World Bank. These organizations affect everything from farm policy to environmental safeguards, and generally put short-term profit above every other concern. See www.globalexchange.org for more information

Third Step: get religious

Call on your own faith community or school religious group to make care for the earth a regular part of its worship and witness. The NCP Drive the Car Fast campaign could do some environmental good and garner some community attention! See the Creative Arts page of the NCP website for worship and study resources.

Remind yourself and those around you that life is more than things.

Involve your community in the If a Tree Falls. reforestation program or the Grounds' Keepers energy stewardship program of the New Community Project.

Sources: Consumers Guide to Effective Environmental Choices (Union of Concerned Scientists); State of the World 2004 (Worldwatch Institute); E Magazine; New York Times.