Saving The Planet-One Page At A Time

I've always tried to live responsibly, and 'green', although I would have to admit I'm not as good as I could be at times, I do try to by eco products that are environmentally friendly. Living on a farm makes it easier. I'm not sure I agree with PETA's stand on consumer raised meats, but I do know that on our small homestead those ideas don't stand up. We do things much different than a 'commercial' farm does, more in keeping with the old farm 'homestead' type of natural living. One thing that really makes a difference in a large way with everyone is the way computers have made their impact felt. Much less paper is used than in the era before emails, and online file transfers. I remember prior to getting 'online' as a writer I would go through three to five reams of paper a month. Now I have had a ream of paper sitting in my drawer for almost two years and it's barely half used. For a long time even after most of my work was done online, I still would print out copies to proof for myself but began to think of the sheer amounts of paper used to do that. It was crazy. Doing it on screen is a little more of a hassle because I'm tied to the computer (and I don't care for laptops so it's my stationary desktop computer) and there is a little more eyestrain involved, but it saves a heck of a lot of trees. Sometimes when I start to doubt the usefulness of my stubborn streak in that matter I look under my desk at the bin that holds the old copies of proof pages. I used to put them in a bin when I was finished reading them to use the blank backs as scratch paper. Even if I never ever print out another page to proof, and I don't plan on it, I will have scratch paper for YEARS thanks to the old method.