Now that gas has topped the $4 mark here in West Michigan, my husband and I have finally reached the point where we have gone beyond complaining to actually making some behavior changes.  When I started driving, gas cost less than $1 per gallon.  As the price has steadily crept up over the years, I have complained, but to be honest, I never thought twice about hopping in the car for a quick trip here or there,  never made vacation plans even, with the cost of gas in mind.  Now that we are paying $4 per gallon, I have been thinking twice almost every time I get into the car to go anywhere.  I have started using my bicycle regularly for trips less than 3 miles.  I do not go to the grocery store more than once a week.  I walk to the library.  My husband and I will not take both vehicles anywhere for convenience sake (we used to do this if we were both going to the same place, but had to make other stops on the way or one of us had to be somewhere longer than the other...now we go along with each other on extra errands and hang around church or wherever extra hours waiting for each other).  We will all go to the grocery store because we can stop off on the way home from Grace's soccer game or practice, rather than me making a seperate trip during the week. 

I would like to say that we have made these changes to do our part in taking care of the environment, but that wouldn't be true.  It's purely economic motivation.  A couple friend of ours has started carpooling downtown to work/school.  So, has $4 a gallon gas changed your habits?  If so, how? If not, at what point will you consider making changes?

In a previous post, I talked about trying cloth diapers to reduce the impact on the environment (and my pocketbook).  I originally ordered 6 pre-folds and 2 covers from Cottonbabies.com to try it out before I committed to buying a full supply of cloth diapers.  There is definitely a learning curve, especially starting out on a 13 month old who will not cooperate during diaper changes, giving me all of 7 seconds to figure things out before she's trying to climb down from the changing table.  Now that I have my techniques down, things are going fairly well.  With one exception:  this is my supply as of yesterday...

(Note the super-cute reusable flannel/terry wipes in the front of the diapers - I made those!  About 60 0f them!)

Needless to say, this set-up required daily laudering of diapers...not fun.  So I had been ready to go online and spend an obscene amount of money to get more supplies, cutting down the laundering from every day (or more) to every third day or so (you don't want to let those babies sit too long before washing!). 

I stopped by a garage sale in my neighborhood last night - they were setting up to open today - and it just happened to be the parents' house of a gal from church, so she and her sister had contributed to the garage sale - lots of baby stuff....and do you know what I found??  YES!  Cloth diapers....cheap cloth diapers!  So I bought them out...sorry to those who were polite and waited for today to go to the sale!  I more than tripled my supply for a very reasonable price!  Now I have pocket diapers as well - awesome!  I paid maybe 1/4 of what I would have if I had bought new.  And they are in great shape.  So, here is the addition:  12 prefolds, 8 doublers and 6 FuzziBunz pocket diapers.  Love that name!

I am in business!  Hello laundry every other day, I love you!

Bet you've never experienced such an enthusiastic entry about diapers!

The best part - Since I don't need to buy disposables, I would have recouped my costs in 4 months buying new...now I will have broken even in only 3 weeks!

If you had to choose between importing what goes into your gas tank or what goes on your table, which would you choose?  DUH!  But here in the good ole US of A, we have chosen a path that leads to importing our food from foreign countries, all in the name of environmentalism and "reducing our dependance on foreign oil".  This is, of course, a good aim.  However, not at the cost of increasing our dependance on foreign food. 

Ethanol is great - the fuel of the future, the answer to our problem of "dependance on foreign oil", right?  Maybe not. 

 #1 reason ethanol is not the answer:  ethanol is derived from corn.  We eat corn, cows eat corn, chickens eat corn.  Corn needs a field to grow in.  Because there is such a desire for ethanol-based fuel (mostly stemming from the government rather than marketplace demand, as evidenced by government corn subsidies) it has become very profitable for farmers to grow corn.  What's wrong with that?  Well, if farmers are growing more corn, they are growing less wheat, soybeans and other crops.  So?  So there is a shortage of wheat and soy.  A shortage of a certain crop drives up the price (supply and demand).  So?  So your bread and soy latte just got a lot more expensive.  "Well, I'm on the Adkin's diet and don't drink coffee, so how does this all effect me?",  you may ask.  Do you eat meat?  What about dairy products?  Eggs?  If you eat any of these, you may have noticed the price is going up on these products.  Why?  Back to the top, cows eat corn, chickens eat corn, corn is more expensive because so much is being diverted from the food chain for making ethanol. So, unless you are a vegetarian who does not eat grain or soy products, this is a problem for you.  But the good news is, we can import food really cheaply from overseas.  What would you rather import - your food or your fuel??

#2 reason ethanol is not the answer:  ethanol still requires oil!  How does the farmer harvest the corn used to make ethanol?  You guessed it - a tractor which runs on diesel fuel.  How does the ethanol get to the gas station?  You're getting it - diesel fuel.  For actual scientific reasons why ethanol doesn't make sense, check out Cornell University's David Pimentel's view here.

Sorry, I promised an entry on the evils of ethanol, you thought I was kidding, but now you have it.  Tell your congressman you would rather import your fuel than your food.  Support local farmers by buying fresh, local and in season.  Drill in ANWAR..it's better than Costa Rican bananas.  And cheaper than Middle Eastern oil, or ethanol for that matter.  The price at the pump isn't the only price we pay.  Import your fuel, not your food.  Drill for oil in ANWAR, the Gulf of Mexico, North Dakota.  Why not use our own oil?  If we drilled our oil in the US and refined it in the US, wouldn't that also create jobs??  Me for president, 2008.