Ya’ll know me, so I have to be honest and say right up front that I don’t buy into this gloom and doom, we’re gonna cook ourselves to death global warming stuff. I do however think that when we were told to take dominion over the earth and subdue it, that also carried a responsibility to use the resources we’ve been given wisely. There’s no need to waste the gifts we’ve been given.

So, yes, I do sometimes read some stuff about global warming, because I find that there are some good common sense things we can do to leave a smaller footprint on the earth, and I am all for that. Today, I read this list of 20 ways to lower your carbon footprint.

I was glad to see that we are already doing quite a few of these things. For instance, the number one item on the list is setting your hot water heater to 120 degrees. We do that, and have done it anytime we have control of the hot water heater because of the children. It’s a safety issue for us, because water hotter than that can result in severe burns before you can jerk your hand out of the water stream.

We also planted trees recently, which is number 6 on the list. Now, I freely admit the world environment was not at the fore-front of my mind when I did that. I was thinking about my own inside environment, and my cooling bill. See, I strategically planted those trees so that they would shade the side of my house that gets abominably HOT every afternoon in the summer.

There are several other things on the list that we are doing as well, because they either fit my pocketbook NOW, or promise to help it LATER. It’s apparent that my reasons for doing things the way I do are pretty self-serving, isn’t it? But if you want to give me credit for helping the environment, I’ll take it.