Hello, all, and welcome to the last Make-It-Green Girl of 2008. The New Year's holiday is a time to reflect on the past year's deeds and plan the next, to look for faults and accomplishments, and resolve to do all sorts of things that we'll forget about in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to getting outdoors more in my town, searching out great parks and recreation that doesn't involve pumping money into our slouching consumer economy.

So my question to all my listeners is, what are you thinking about for 2009? Leave me a comment on this episode's website at quickanddirtytips.com

So here they are, Make-it-Green-Girl's top ten New Year's Resolutions for 2009 and beyond.

1. I will drive less.

It took me a long time to get used to living without a car. You have to do without things, and that's very hard for a girl who grew up without wanting for anything essential.

I gave up doing more than one errand in one day because the bus transfers would be so atrocious, or my bike would be so burdened with groceries that I wouldn't be able to pedal up the hill home.

I gave up the ability to carry delicate food to potlucks, move other people's furniture, and get to doctor's appointments without taking half a day off work.

I learned how to not want to go places that weren't served by transit, and choose doctors, stores, and friends who lived close by.

But I gained a lot, too. Which leads me to...

2. I will bike/walk/bus more.

I gained a great figure and some wonderful exercise opportunities when I walked, rode my bike, or packed my groceries home on my back.

Hoofing it to the grocery store afforded me the time for a cell-phone conversation without being an unsafe driver (or getting a ticket in California). Plus, I got a look at all my neighbors home improvements and landscaping. I even started walking around town for fun, snapping pictures of beautiful gardens and looking for the nicest parks to sit and read.

Biking to the grocery store forced me to buy things a little at a time, so I learned to plan my meals in a completely food-centric way.

And taking the train or bus to work affords me a whole forty minutes of reading time in an air conditioned or heated car with no need to pay attention to anything but my copy of Michael Pollan's The Omnivores Dilemma. I've been chewing through my library at a prodigious rate since I started commuting by public transit.

3. I will change my lightbulbs.

This was a no brainer for me. I put CFLs everywhere I could, and stopped using lamps that couldn't take CFLs, like the ceiling fan and the dimmer switch in the kitchen.

I switched to LED Christmas lights and an LED flashlight. I love the extra brightness that LEDs afford.

Change your lighting wherever you can.

4. I will turn off the lights when I'm not using them.

My father yelled at me all the time for not turning off the lights when I wasn't in the room. Now I've turned into my father (scary) and started chastizing others. Get into the habit of looking at your power bill every month and moaning to your whole household about how it could be lower.

5. I will unplug my gadgets.

In fact, nothing should be taking up electricity when you're not in the room. Computers, stereos, TVs, heaters, and fans should all be turned off if you don't plan on going back into the room in the next 15 minutes.

I used to live with one of those background noise TV watchers. A little home cooking and dinners together helped to alleviate her need to watch TV all evening, and my super-energy saving radio kept me company while I cooked.

Now that I live alone, I find it disheartening to come home to a cold dark apartment. I got myself a plug-in timer for my lamp and my heater/fan so my home would be a little more livable when I got there. You can find them online for under ten dollars.

6. I will eat less meat.

You've heard the schtick, so I'll spare you this time around. I'll just give you some side information to push you on your way. Only bad vegetarians get skinny from protein deficiency and die from iron-deficiency.

If you eat mostly plants and stay away from junk food, you will not only not die, but you will probably outlive your meat- and junk-food eating counterparts who will die of "western diseases" like diabetes and heart disease.

I'm siding with the veggie-saurs and taking my chances without meat. It's been pretty difficult -- I started with a list of all my favorite foods without meat in them. Then I made a list of the ones that would do without the meat, or less meat, or a meat substitute. It's a start.

7. I will eat more locally-produced food.

Your new mantra is FOSL: Fresh, Organic, Seasonal, and Local. The more of these adjectives you can describe your food with, the better. [chant] Oooom FOSL oooommmm.

The organic standards are a weak imitation of the original organic ideals, and are even more weakly enforced, as evidenced by the latest organic fertilizer scandal as organic farmers unwittingly used synthetic fertilizer from a number of manufacturers skirting the organic standards. The fertilizer companies escaped with a small fine. (Sac Bee 28 Dec 2008)

Trust is an extremely important part of the sustainable food movement, and not amount of government certification can replace the bond between you and your local growers. To find growers, farmers markets, and community supported agriculture in your area visit sustainabletable.org or localharvest.org. I've become summarily attached to the people at my local market, and I hope you do too.

8. I will invest in energy efficiency appliances, cars, and products.

When my mom's washer broke, we got the high-efficiency front loader and started saving soap and water. Oh yeah! When the dryer broke, my Dad shelled out for the gas dryer and started saving electricity and reducing our risk of fire. Woo hoo!

Get a new fridge, freezer, air conditions, or hot water heater before it breaks -- start saving electrons now! Your budget and the electrical grid will thank you.

9. I will buy less stuff with less packaging.

It's really difficult for me to find something that isn't shrink-wrapped, double-boxed, and taped shut. We like to have nice neat packaging for shipping good halfway across the world and displaying side by side along with millions others just like it in the stores. But I just hate dealing with the trash.

Imagine for a moment that you do not have garbage service. You had to compost, burn, or reuse every bit of everything you've ever bought. My trips overseas have taught me not only how wasteful Americans are, but how the wasting is facilitated by our waste disposal services. Cut the packaging, and you'll cut the waste.

It just so happens that stuff that's made locally usually needs a lot less packaging, since half the purpose of packaging is to protect items during shipping. So buy local, buy McDonough and Braungart's Cradle to Cradle online on audiobook, or don't buy at all.

10. I will throw away less trash and recycle more.

This is the companion to number nine. The ultimate goal is to make less trash so we waste less resources and use up less valuable land for our junk. I started by buying a smaller trash can. It's a huge pain to take the trash out, and if I didn't reduce the amount of trash I made, I'd be taking the trash out every day. Yikes!

OK, folks, that's it for another Make-It-Green Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for an Earth Friendly Life. You can find a transcript of this show at quickanddirtytips.com.

I'm sad to announce that this will be the last episode of Make-It-Green Girl; I'm no longer going to be your host for weekly fun tips about how to make your life greener in a hurry. Unfortunately, the show won't continue without me, so I wanted to say a big thanks to all of the support, questions, comments, grief, and downright candid converstation that you, my listeners provided me. Thanks also to my sponsor, GoToMeeting, whose ads kept the show going for many weeks. Keep the conversations going with all of your friends and family, and we'll surely have created a more knowledgable, empowered world.

Thanks for listening, and happy New Year.