• Skip the Kids Cup -- Make sure to let your waiter or waitress know right away, sometimes they will bring one immediately.  
• Carpool if you are meeting people or pick restaraunts closer to you.
• Bring a tiffen for your leftovers.         
• Look for places that use paper instead of plastic or bio-cups.  Some we know of in Salt Lake are: Spoon Me yogurt and Tea Grotto  
• As always choose local first and stimulate your local economy.  Try www.delocator.net you can search by zip code to find locally owned businesses.

Tips on making it easy to stop using
plastic and paper bags.
REDUCE, then REUSE before recycling.

How air pollution hurts your kids' lungs

• Children are more vulnerable than adults to air pollution's effects
• Children's lungs don't fully form until they are adolescents
• Breathing difficulties can hurt oxygen supply to growing brain

By Judy Fortin
CNN Medical Correspondent

Since we are in spring, everyone is thinking about their outdoor spaces now.  Time to make your yard beautiful! Since we do live in a desert, we all need to xeriscape.  Xeriscaping is about using plants that are apropriate for the climate you live in.  Here in Utah, we would want to be using drought resitant plants.  The whole idea here is that we want to minimize the need for supplemental irrigation aka SAVE WATER!

From the New York Times

By MATTHEW L. WALD BOULDER CITY, Nev. — At first, as he adjusted pumps and checked temperatures, Aaron Boucher looked like any technician in the control room of an electrical plant. Then he rushed to the window and scanned the sky, to check his fuel supply.

Mr. Boucher was battling clouds, timing the operations of his power plant to get the most out of patchy sunshine. It is a skill that may soon be in greater demand, for the world appears to be on the verge of a boom in a little-known but promising type of solar power.

BYOB...Bring your own bag! 

Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags each year! What can you do to help this problem?