December 31, 2012

15 Green New Year’s Resolutions for 2013

MoJo staffers weigh in.

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Welcome to the third annual Econundrums new year’s resolution roundup! I like to end every year of Econundrums by asking: What are your environmentally-themed goals for the year to come? (You can check out previous years’ resolutions here and here.) This year, I posed the question to my fellow Mother Jones staffers. Here are some of their responses:

 

 

Rinse and re-use plastic zip lock bags. Remember to take reusable vegetable bags to the store. Remember to turn off power strips not in use. -Khary Brown

Divest myself from fossil fuels. -Tim McDonnell

Stop buying palm oil imported from Indonesia. They’re destroying entire acres of precious habitat in order to grow palms for palm oil. The baboons who live here, as well as a species of tiger, are losing their habitat and may become endangered. -Young Kim

Make the switch to natural cleaning products. Go cruelty-free with cosmetics. -Allison Stelly

Eat less cheese. -Kate Sheppard

Eat only sustainably harvested fish/shellfish. Oh! I’m going to miss it so! And make all gifts and cards for the year out of things I already own–sewing projects using old clothes, mostly, but some book binding too. -Emma Logan

Bike to my nearest “park & ride” (as opposed to driving!) -Jacques Hebert

Stop drinking soy milk. -Maddie Oatman

Overcome the idea that real action on environmental problems has anything to do with individual consumer choice. -Luke Smith

Remember to bring my own bag and stop getting charged 10 cents. Reuse food scraps and pulp (for soups, pies, curry) before throwing into compost. -Jaeah Lee

Drink more—from reusable containers like growlers. -Tom Philpott

I want to opt out of a full-body TSA scan at least once. I’m not comfortable with the amount of radiation those scanners give off, or the way TSA handled the public’s health concerns around them. -Maggie Severns

Refill my hand, dish and laundry soap from the bulk section at my local health food store rather than bring new containers into my home. -Amber Hewins

Stop being afraid to tell the 7-11 guy that I don’t need a plastic bag. -Sydney Brownstone

…and as for me, I’m going to volunteer for at least one environment-related project in my community—maybe a community garden workday, a beach cleanup, or trail maintenance at a local park.

Do you have an environmental new year’s resolution? Leave it in the comments.

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There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

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—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

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