Herbal Medicines

Have you mailed your Christmas cards yet?

No? You're not alone. Holiday greeting cards have followed the general decline of written personal correspondence. From an environmental perspective, that's not necessarily bad news. But there's something nice about reaching out to from distant friends and family members around the holidays.

Which is where eCards can come in handy. No paper; no wasteful shipping -- and you can leave them until the last minute without feeling guilty.

Not all electronic greeting cards are created equal. There's no shortage a free cards, and some of them look great. But there's nothing festive about exposing your card's recipient to a site full of tacky ads or dubious email privacy policies. Do your homework when choosing an eCard vendor, and consider some of the paid services.

Hallmark has a quality mix of free and paid eCards. Blue Mountain has a clear privacy and anti-phishing policy. Looking for a nature-themed card? Check out the Nature Conservancy's eco-greetings.

So start typing. At least you won't have to lick the stamps.

Have you mailed your Christmas cards yet?

No? You're not alone. Holiday greeting cards have followed the general decline of written personal correspondence. From an environmental perspective, that's not necessarily bad news. But there's something nice about reaching out to from distant friends and family members around the holidays.

Which is where eCards can come in handy. No paper; no wasteful shipping -- and you can leave them until the last minute without feeling guilty.

Not all electronic greeting cards are created equal. There's no shortage a free cards, and some of them look great. But there's nothing festive about exposing your card's recipient to a site full of tacky ads or dubious email privacy policies. Do your homework when choosing an eCard vendor, and consider some of the paid services.

Hallmark has a quality mix of free and paid eCards. Blue Mountain has a clear privacy and anti-phishing policy. Looking for a nature-themed card? Check out the Nature Conservancy's eco-greetings.

So start typing. At least you won't have to lick the stamps.

Have you mailed your Christmas cards yet?

No? You're not alone. Holiday greeting cards have followed the general decline of written personal correspondence. From an environmental perspective, that's not necessarily bad news. But there's something nice about reaching out to from distant friends and family members around the holidays.

Which is where eCards can come in handy. No paper; no wasteful shipping -- and you can leave them until the last minute without feeling guilty.

Not all electronic greeting cards are created equal. There's no shortage a free cards, and some of them look great. But there's nothing festive about exposing your card's recipient to a site full of tacky ads or dubious email privacy policies. Do your homework when choosing an eCard vendor, and consider some of the paid services.

Hallmark has a quality mix of free and paid eCards. Blue Mountain has a clear privacy and anti-phishing policy. Looking for a nature-themed card? Check out the Nature Conservancy's eco-greetings.

So start typing. At least you won't have to lick the stamps.

A couple weeks back, I was interviewed by NPR’s Neda Ullaby for an upcoming environmental piece on Morning Edition.

The segment is scheduled to air today. Its topic is whether the environmental movement has become preoccupied with global warming. Morning Edition's report is based, at least in part, on a piece I wrote for Lighter Footstep last June: Five Things that Are Worse than Global Warming. I published it on the day of the Live Earth concerts, and it ended up being one of our most read (and most controversial) articles.

Lighter Footstep is primarily about personal approaches to Green Living, so we don’t directly address climate change that often. The position I took with Neda is that the success of the movie An Inconvenient Truth marked a real sea change for the environmental movement. At the same time, all the attention being paid to global warming is giving a variety of issues the cold shoulder.

I thought it might be appropriate to reprint the original article. Click through to see what the fuss was about, and please feel free to share your thoughts in our comments section.

A couple weeks back, I was interviewed by NPR’s Neda Ullaby for an upcoming environmental piece on Morning Edition.

The segment is scheduled to air today. Its topic is whether the environmental movement has become preoccupied with global warming. Morning Edition's report is based, at least in part, on a piece I wrote for Lighter Footstep last June: Five Things that Are Worse than Global Warming. I published it on the day of the Live Earth concerts, and it ended up being one of our most read (and most controversial) articles.

Lighter Footstep is primarily about personal approaches to Green Living, so we don’t directly address climate change that often. The position I took with Neda is that the success of the movie An Inconvenient Truth marked a real sea change for the environmental movement. At the same time, all the attention being paid to global warming is giving a variety of issues the cold shoulder.

I thought it might be appropriate to reprint the original article. Click through to see what the fuss was about, and please feel free to share your thoughts in our comments section.

A couple weeks back, I was interviewed by NPR’s Neda Ullaby for an upcoming environmental piece on Morning Edition.

The segment is scheduled to air today. Its topic is whether the environmental movement has become preoccupied with global warming. Morning Edition's report is based, at least in part, on a piece I wrote for Lighter Footstep last June: Five Things that Are Worse than Global Warming. I published it on the day of the Live Earth concerts, and it ended up being one of our most read (and most controversial) articles.

Lighter Footstep is primarily about personal approaches to Green Living, so we don’t directly address climate change that often. The position I took with Neda is that the success of the movie An Inconvenient Truth marked a real sea change for the environmental movement. At the same time, all the attention being paid to global warming is giving a variety of issues the cold shoulder.

I thought it might be appropriate to reprint the original article. Click through to see what the fuss was about, and please feel free to share your thoughts in our comments section.

At Lighter Footstep, we've long been fans of bicycle commuting. And with record crude oil prices and gasoline again edging up above $3.00 a gallon in the United States, a lot of people are starting to agree.

When it comes to green transportation, bikes are tough to beat. They’re cheap, quick in traffic, and pollution free. But it’s tough to tote the weekly groceries unless you’re properly equipped. That’s where this burly CETMArack comes in.

The CETMArack is plenty big enough to handle that weekend beer run — or pretty much anything else you can think of doing. They come in three, five, and seven rail configurations, and can be purchased with a handy “fence” too keep things from sliding around.

Wait until you see what you can do with this thing. Click through to see just how much a bicycle can haul.

At Lighter Footstep, we've long been fans of bicycle commuting. And with record crude oil prices and gasoline again edging up above $3.00 a gallon in the United States, a lot of people are starting to agree.

When it comes to green transportation, bikes are tough to beat. They’re cheap, quick in traffic, and pollution free. But it’s tough to tote the weekly groceries unless you’re properly equipped. That’s where this burly CETMArack comes in.

The CETMArack is plenty big enough to handle that weekend beer run — or pretty much anything else you can think of doing. They come in three, five, and seven rail configurations, and can be purchased with a handy “fence” too keep things from sliding around.

Wait until you see what you can do with this thing. Click through to see just how much a bicycle can haul.

At Lighter Footstep, we've long been fans of bicycle commuting. And with record crude oil prices and gasoline again edging up above $3.00 a gallon in the United States, a lot of people are starting to agree.

When it comes to green transportation, bikes are tough to beat. They’re cheap, quick in traffic, and pollution free. But it’s tough to tote the weekly groceries unless you’re properly equipped. That’s where this burly CETMArack comes in.

The CETMArack is plenty big enough to handle that weekend beer run — or pretty much anything else you can think of doing. They come in three, five, and seven rail configurations, and can be purchased with a handy “fence” too keep things from sliding around.

Wait until you see what you can do with this thing. Click through to see just how much a bicycle can haul.

The very picture of suburban America — a comfortable-looking small home, complete with picket fencing and a verdant thatch of manicured lawn:

But things aren’t quite what they seem. Here’s the same house, shortly before its lawn was treated and the photographer figured out how to hold his camera straight:

So what's going on here? The lawn in the top image has been painted — as in sprayed with landscaping paint. It’s a new way to show a plush lawn that looks great from the street, but doesn’t suck down time and resources. Click through to the rest of the article for more.