From Iran with Anger

I had a colleague who had this sign on his desk "Nature is your mother, don't mess with it (!)"

When it comes to environment-friendly manner, big cars and houses don't look classy any more. Actually, small houses and compact cars explain that you care about the environment. I agree, some of these philanthropic behavior we see from Al Gore and other politicians and celebrities are just for publicity, no question about it. But we need to realize that the more we move towards green energy and green lifestyle, the more beautiful a life we will live in the future. Just look at Tehran and its pollution crisis. I went to college in Tehran and never used a bike to get to my school. It was not my fault; the culture just wasn't there. Unlike the US, you don't see many students riding their bikes to school in our cities. The funny thing is that my gradfather and his generation used to ride those big indian bikes to their workplace. And we used to ride to school when we were in elementary school. All of a sudden riding a bike to university was not classy enough!

I guess we Iranians are good in Sarfe Jooiee and saving; I and many of my friends use energy efficient light bulbs or manage to we walk to work instead of driving. But when it comes to recycling, man! We are ridiculous. Is it because it is not our own country?

Living green doesn't mean you should suffer from economy living. If you can pay for a brand new SUV, you can probably pay for a solar panel system as well and even get a tax credit; you can even sell the excess power generated to your energy provider and buy it back when you need it, it's called "net metering" next time ask about it from your electricity provider they will love it

Here is a list I think might help us live more green and have a cleaner mother nature!

1. Buy a composter and put it in your backyard ($40) it basically converts garbage to fertilizers using cute little red worms
2. Use energy efficient light bulbs (30% reduction in your electricity bill)
3. Not using an electric device? (VCR, chargers, stero), unplug them! it will reduce your consumption by 25%, trust me
4. take a navy shower, its fun :) (relationship experts recommend taking navy shower to couples, see! its sexy too)
5. walk or bike to work, you'll look better after all
6. Buy cloth napkins instead of paper napkins
7. recycle
8. use solar energy if you can afford, you can buy a solar heater very cheap, but solar panels are expensive
9. buy wind electricity instead of fossil based electricity, again its a little more expensive don't do it if you are a student
10. lose weight
11. reuse water bottles and plastic bags
12. live in a smaller house if you can afford, seriously 1000 square feet per person is quite enough, what are you, and elephant?
13. Put a small bottle full of water in your toilet tank it saves flush water that you don't need
14. use a green shower head, it mixes more air with water. better for your skin better for your mother, and finally
    Don't torture yourself with being green, live green to enjoy it.