New efforts include: a vow to restrain myself around postcards for art and shows -- I'm addicted to them but they usually end up in the trash.  I also signed up for paperless statements through Citibank: they promise to plant a tree through the National Arbor Day Foundation in exchange for my efforts.  I hope they don't send me a million postcards thanking me for the tree.

Finally, last week I created a pile of already-printed paper that instead of recycling right away I'll use for the voluminous internal reports I have to print out almost daily.  I will confess, though, that this last measure feels a little silly.  I know, I know, "every little bit helps!" and I'll keep it up this year -- but this and other small, squirrely efforts make me feel less empowered, not more. (Maybe it's because it's at work, where I don't have much power?)  Rathje and Murphy assert that rather than viewing our garbage problem as a crisis, "a more rational policy would consist of muddling along, making improvements at the margin all the time, applying the fruits of advancing technology and of new knowledge about human behavior..."  I've got the muddling down, and I'm learning that some humans like myself need dramatic results in order to feel like they're making a difference.