Take Me To Post Comment Form Did all the media hype surrounding Earth Day actually motivate people to change their behavior?

In some cases, I think it did. You may have noticed that nearly all the grocery stores are selling reusable bags, generally made of mesh fabric. I've wondered whether anybody is actually buying the bags, and more importantly, are they using them for the intended purpose?

The answer is yes! Twice in the past week, at two different grocery stores, I have observed people bringing their bags with them and using them in lieu of disposable plastic bags. These were not granola-crunching hippies, just regular folks. I hope that when the spirit of Earth Day fades they will continue to remember to reduce, reuse, recycle.

Earth Day publicity certainly had an effect on my own behavior. My birthday falls on April 24, two days after Earth Day, and for years I have celebrated by going down to Athens and having dinner at my favorite restaurant.

But that's a 125-mile round trip from where I live, and this year, I couldn't justify it. Oh, I had enough money to cover the high price of gas, but that's not the point. I've been reading so much about how we should reduce our "carbon footprint," and I just couldn't bring myself to make an unnecessary trip.

Though I wear a size 6 shoe, my carbon "footprint" is disproportionate to my actual footprint. And that's disconcerting to me. Overall, I have a pretty low-impact lifestyle, but what ruins my carbon score is my long commute. I drive way too many miles, and I feel bad about that. So even though my car is a fuel-efficient Honda, I try to leave it parked except for work and vital errands.

There's a really entertaining article in the April issue of Backpacker magazine. A guy who lives in Wisconsin yearned to visit the rainforests of Costa Rica. The editors of Backpacker said they would send him there, for free. The catch? He would have to subtract from his own lifestyle the number of pounds of carbon emitted during the plane flight. And nothing spews out more carbon than jet travel. So this guy became a real carbon miser, trying to shave off every ounce he could. Things got a little ridiculous as he turned the thermostat way down during a Wisconsin winter, bathed only occasionally (until it threatened to break up his marriage), and tried to swap his truck for a friend's Prius.

That was kind of a goofy project, but it made a point. He did reduce his carbon footprint significantly. Though none of us would want to go to the extremes he did, we can make relatively painless changes that can add up.

Though I would have enjoyed going to Athens last week, I didn't starve to death by not going. I had a delicious dinner at home, and I had peace of mind because I felt that I had made the right decision.

(Besides, I'm going to Colorado in July, and I've got to start compensating for that plane flight now.)