serve God save the planet

its a book i'm reading, "Serve God Save the Planet" (in that order...its important to get the order right!) by Matthew Sleeth. Its good. Stretching my heart and mind. sometimes i read and think "i think he's taking this a little too far." or "I'm not sure i'm buying that" and other times i think, "wow, this really makes sense." or, "wow, this is really convincing." or "i could do that."

i think those are signs of a good book. when i don't buy it all...when it challenges my heart...and probably more importantly when it actually prompts me to change my actions. so...here are some fun facts/did you knows from the book...

• If every household in America switched 5 light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs it would save so much energy we would immediately reduce energy consumption enough to shut down 21 coal power plants!
• compact fluorescent light bulbs use 75% less energy than a regular bulb.
• 25% of your electric bill is "phantom energy" - stuff that's turned off, but plugged in and still sucking power...get a power strip with a switch and turn things on and off that way.
• Americans spend more money to power audio equipment when its turned off than when its turned on
• it takes (on average) 5 kilowatt hours to dry a load of clothes.
• "in order make 1 watt of electrical energy for use in a home, 3 watts must be made at the power plant. 2/3 of the energy goes up the smokestacks and cooling towers and because energy is lost in the long distance transmission of power."
• i don't know the specific stat, but if every car in america had properly inflated tires we would use LOTS less gas...

just some thoughts...

i have a friend who is much cooler than me (i know, not hard to do)...and she and another friend have started to say, "its our one chance to save the planet" when they make a choice that is earth friendly. so i've stolen the phrase - and now my co-workers think i'm cool (or maybe weird) when i say it.

give it a try. skip a plastic bag at the store. recycle some plastic/paper/aluminum, turn off some lights, change some light bulbs, check your tires (okay, i'll admit i've known that "fact" for a few months and still haven't checked mine), line dry your clothes, buy something from goodwill instead of new...and then say, "this is my one chance to save the planet." you'll feel like the super-hero you are!