We all make resolutions for the New Year, don’t we? Lose weight, work out more, swear less. We don’t need to remain trapped in our own little worlds, though; we can make resolutions that affect more than our own image in the mirror—we can choose to make resolutions that impact our communities and the planet. Really. And they don’t necessarily need to be painful, expensive, or self-righteous.

Try a few of the following resolutions and help make our New River Valley, and our planet, a healthier place to be. We’ve gathered them from conservation and environmental organizations around the world and picked out those we think are especially “new” for this New Year, avoiding the tired, the costly, and/or the sanctimonious.

Here are our Eight for ’08:

1. Start out your thinking on New Year’s Resolutions by figuring out where you stand. Go to Environmental Defense’s Web site (www.edf.org) and take their test to Calculate your Personal Impact on our world. It’s short, easy, and best of all, it doesn’t browbeat you or make you feel terrible at the end. Plus it gives you practical “How You Can Cut Your Pollution” suggestions. Go ahead, give it a whirl.
2. It’s no secret that a healthier planet will come from smarter use of our resources—and smarter means informed. Pick a blog oriented to a conservation or environmental line of discussion, follow it along, and go ahead, start posting your thoughts. Take a look at http://earthmeanders.blogspot.com, http://greenskeptic.blogspot.com, or http://thelazyenvironmentalist.blogspot.com for starters. There are even some nifty podcasts out there to subscribe to, try The Nature Conservancy’s (www.nature.org) “Nature Stories” podcast that takes you to wonderful places, and talks to people with things to say about conservation. And don’t forget to check out the stories and blogs on www.newrivervoice.com that cover environmental issues. Feel free to leave us a comment.
3. Here’s a short and sweet one: figure out what the appropriate tire pressure is for your car (look at the writing on the tires themselves, at the label often found in the door closure on the driver’s side, or in your car’s manual) and keep your tires inflated to the specs indicated. You’ll improve your mileage and use less gas. While we’re talking cars, though, be sure to use a mechanic who recycles stuff like oil, antifreeze, and tires and is otherwise environmentally aware.
4. Download your music instead of buying the plastic cases with all the paper inside. Not only will you eliminate the need for the stuff to begin with, when you’re tired of those songs, you can just delete them instead of throwing away a CD and case.
5. Get your furnace checked out annually; making sure it’s operating at peak efficiency will save you money by saving on fuel costs—and change those filters, too.
6. Buy and use recyclable batteries rather than buying tons of disposables—everyone knows how long they keep going and going and going in our landfills.
7. Go ahead, recycle your trash, you know you want to. Even if you have to dispose of your trash at the county dump, everyone has dumpsters devoted to recyclables such as cardboard (think of all those cereal boxes and paper six-pack holders), glass, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans. If you have to start slowly, go with just one category and see how it makes you feel.
8. If you love it, volunteer your time, and give away just a little of your treasure—it’s up to those of us who love something in our world to help protect it. For example, right here in our New River watershed, the National Committee for the New River (NCNR) has our back, protecting the river and its important landscapes. They’ve worked in 2007 to keep a prison off the banks of the New in Grayson County and are keeping a close eye on that proposed fly-ash fill project we’ve written about in Giles County. Right now, NCNR is expanding their water quality monitoring program in our area as well and is actively looking for volunteers (individuals and groups) to train for this important work. Check them out at www.ncnr.org. As the New River Voice, we’re partial to the New River, of course, but numerous national and regional environmental groups exist that would be happy to accept your donation.

There now, that didn’t hurt a bit, did it?