Achieving a smaller carbon foot-print

Sarah and I have been talking a lot lately about the buzz words "carbon foot-print" and how you can't seem to wad up a paper and not hit those characters at least every other day. All of that is really okay with us, because we are fans of the environment and we do believe we here in the U.S. especially are spending way to many of the Earth's precious resources without much concern for the future of anyone on the planet.

What we are discussing is where can we live that would enable us to achieve the smallest carbon foot print for our household? What place in the world would offer the kinds of opportunities to shrink it as much as possible?

We recently left Denver to move to Flagstaff so I could take a new job and Sarah could open herself up to whatever new possibilities might present themselves. We loved Denver and we are enjoying Flagstaff (the transition is tough, but change although constant still seems a challenge) but we are feeling the pain of leaving behind a remarkably progressive (I wish I didn't have to use those words to describe it) recycling plan for one that is quite limited. The amount of trash we are thowing into a landfill here in Flagstaff is triple what we threw away in Denver. Is it because Denver is a larger city? Maybe, but that seems to me to be just as easily a strike against the metropolis as not. Is it because no one in Flagstaff cares about recycling? I don't think so. In the end, I think it boils down to economics, as does just about everything else, including being one of the main reasons we moved to Flagstaff (remember that new job, well it came with a much better salary).

So, where are we? Still in Flagstaff, continuing the transition, but also thinking pretty hard about measures we can take right now, to shrink our carbon footprint.

We'll keep you posted on our progress or as the case may be, our move to somewhere yet to be determined that will provide more "enabling" an environment for shrinkage!