December 31, 2012

15 Green New Year’s Resolutions for 2013

MoJo staffers weigh in.

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Welcome to the third annual Econundrums new year’s resolution roundup! I like to end every year of Econundrums by asking: What are your environmentally-themed goals for the year to come? (You can check out previous years’ resolutions here and here.) This year, I posed the question to my fellow Mother Jones staffers. Here are some of their responses:

 

 

Rinse and re-use plastic zip lock bags. Remember to take reusable vegetable bags to the store. Remember to turn off power strips not in use. -Khary Brown

Divest myself from fossil fuels. -Tim McDonnell

Stop buying palm oil imported from Indonesia. They’re destroying entire acres of precious habitat in order to grow palms for palm oil. The baboons who live here, as well as a species of tiger, are losing their habitat and may become endangered. -Young Kim

Make the switch to natural cleaning products. Go cruelty-free with cosmetics. -Allison Stelly

Eat less cheese. -Kate Sheppard

Eat only sustainably harvested fish/shellfish. Oh! I’m going to miss it so! And make all gifts and cards for the year out of things I already own–sewing projects using old clothes, mostly, but some book binding too. -Emma Logan

Bike to my nearest “park & ride” (as opposed to driving!) -Jacques Hebert

Stop drinking soy milk. -Maddie Oatman

Overcome the idea that real action on environmental problems has anything to do with individual consumer choice. -Luke Smith

Remember to bring my own bag and stop getting charged 10 cents. Reuse food scraps and pulp (for soups, pies, curry) before throwing into compost. -Jaeah Lee

Drink more—from reusable containers like growlers. -Tom Philpott

I want to opt out of a full-body TSA scan at least once. I’m not comfortable with the amount of radiation those scanners give off, or the way TSA handled the public’s health concerns around them. -Maggie Severns

Refill my hand, dish and laundry soap from the bulk section at my local health food store rather than bring new containers into my home. -Amber Hewins

Stop being afraid to tell the 7-11 guy that I don’t need a plastic bag. -Sydney Brownstone

…and as for me, I’m going to volunteer for at least one environment-related project in my community—maybe a community garden workday, a beach cleanup, or trail maintenance at a local park.

Do you have an environmental new year’s resolution? Leave it in the comments.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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