Tips for Living Green: Improving Your Health (as a Vegetarian?) and the Environment

I’m not normally a resolution-maker, but in 2006 I’ve vowed to educate myself about environmental issues and to make wiser choices for our, and our planet’s health.

I have grown increasingly concerned by news stories and scientific reports in the past year about species loss, ever-speeding degradation of our natural world, and increasing rates of environmental-related diseases like cancers and certain birth defects.

Earth First’s cofounder, Dave Foreman, has said that if the environmental movement had called itself “the human-health movement,” which he feels more accurately describes what it cares about—the impact of pollution and urbanization on human life—that we would all be more open and committed to making changes in our destructive behaviors.

Just a bit of research has proven that even if you’re living in a concrete jungle like me, there are a surprising number of actions you can take every day to step more lightly on the planet this year—and improve your health.

Here’s a list of 28 ideas I compiled to inspire myself. They are all easy changes we can make to breathe cleaner air, consume less, drink cleaner water and eat healthier meals.

As added benefits, I’ve found that incorporating some of these lifestyle changes improved the quality of my life by slowing me down, bringing me closer to nature, and tightening my bonds with family, neighbors and community.

Who can argue with that?

Lets’ get started! Hang the list on your refrigerator for reference (on recycled paper, of course—or the back of one already used!). Perhaps use it as a launching point to dialogue with friends and family about the important effects our daily choices have on our environment, health and communities.