OK, what are my choices?

Recycle -- see earlier post about possible wrong-headedness of this.

Buy a better car -- not happening here.

Insulate house -- again, not happening here.

The one long-term thing that I am planning is to stucco the house. I think this will slightly improve our A/C bill. But not by much, if at all. We are saving up for this but have been derailed by more pressing emergencies along the way.

Actually, anything that costs me money is not going to be happening here.

Not to be completely head-in-sand about this but I think we are in the same boat as most families and when faced with paying the mortgage and keeping the gas-burning car versus taking on an additional monthly payment to get an environmentally-friendlier car, guess which one we do?

I already combine trips -- and always have just because that's the kind of anal person I am -- and try to be generally cognizant of the everyday impact of my household (using grey water for watering outside, etc.).

We hardly ever throw away anything that we can give away and we're not afraid to shop at the second-hand store.

OTOH, we've got a lot of electronic devices which I think are probably pretty bad for the environment when we go to get rid of them. And I have a little stockpile of things I have to take out to the dump for toxic things -- like paint and a car battery, that sort of thing. There no charge for that here but it's a schlep.

So what else can a cash-strapped but willing person do?

Beyond my small efforts, I really feel most of the change has to come through government's influence. Like making alternative fuels more available and affordable for cars and for home use. (Again, figure out the cost/benefit of putting in solar panels here in the Sunshine State -- the benefit just isn't there yet for most of us.)

Nance