We are also undoing our green efforts at home as well as the extra weight that Americans have put on over the past 50 years has pretty much negated the gains that the automakers have made in fuel efficiency over the same period of time says Jim Motavalli of Mother Nature Network.

So how can we combat all this?  Here are 5 ways that Jennifer recommends:

Go to bed an hour earlier:  Sleeping longer helps lose weight

Trade the gym for working out in Mother Nature: It is easier to be motivated to workout.

Cook your own food: you can then control what goes in it and how much you eat, and you can focus on organics… Support Community-supported Agriculture (CSA)

Support your local farmers market: It will help you appreciate your food more.

Go Vegetarian: Lessens the impact on the earth and vegetarians are up to 20% slimmer than meat eaters.

To read the complete article, click here.

When most of us old timers were younger, Christmas trees were cut down from old growth wild forests, but today, most come from sustainably harvested Christmas tree farms that cut their trees when they are 9 to 12 years old.

Today, more than 50% of Christmas trees that are found in our homes are of the artificial variety.  While many people think these artificial trees make more eco sense than cutting down live trees others think that the chemicals used to make the artificial trees create more of a threat to the environment than cutting down live ones. It is also thought that the live ones still help with climate changes by reducing greenhouse gases and decreasing global warming while they are growing.

There are a couple other alternatives one could choose as well:

1) buy a live one in a pot and plant it after the holidays.

2) Don’t get a tree at all.

Let’s see what the community at eco.ORG has to say about this. Tell us what you think!

• Selling food directly to consumers is a $1 billion-plus industry for farmers. At least 136,000 U.S. farms sell food to consumers through local food systems including more than 7,000 farmers markets and 4,000 community-supported agriculture (CSA) arrangements (in which consumers buy a share of a farm’s harvest in advance).

• Obesity, which is partly attributable to Americans’ under-consumption of fruits and vegetables relative to other foods, leads to an estimated $147 billion in annual medical costs in the United States. Research shows that shoppers buy more fruits and vegetables at farmers markets than at supermarkets.

• Modest public investment in farmers markets—in the range of $25 million annually—could create up to 13,500 jobs over a five-year period.