Start your own Energy Diet

Andrew Postman, an author and regular contributor to both The New York Times and The Washington Post, felt guilty about his personal contribution to global warming. Unfortunately, Postman did not want to give up his big screen TV or go too far out of his way to do anything that would seriously change his habits or lifestyle. That’s when he got the idea to go on an energy diet.

After answering a few questions about his online energy consumption calculator, Postman was able to get a pretty good idea of how many tons of CO2 he was personally responsible for. His goal then was to reduce that amount by 5 percent, without spending a lot of money or more than eight total hours of his time. Postman’s results were surprisingly effective and simple. By turning down his thermostat one degree at night in the winter, washing white laundry loads in cold water, canceling print catalogs, replacing only 2 commonly used lights with compact florescent light bulbs and setting his computer to sleep mode, as well as a few other behavioral changes (plugging major appliances into power strips, hand washing dishes dirtied after 10pm), Postman was able to reduce his personal contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by seventeen hundred pounds per year. All of this was accomplished in a little over an hour.