10 Green New Year’s Resolutions

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I asked MoJo staffers, our Facebook friends, and Econundrums readers to submit their green new year’s resolutions. Herewith, in no particular order, ten of my favorites:

1. Actually composting the veggies that melt into mush in the bottom of the veggie drawer instead of holding the bag by one corner and putting it in the trash.  There is something about the grossness factor that just makes it hard to scrape them out of the bag…I compost everything else I should! -Emma L.

2. Finally getting my motorcycle license to save gas this summer! -Lucy W.

3. I just discovered that changing the reflectors on my stovetop cuts boiling time in half. Also, i’m pretty proud of the fact that i always flush my dog’s poop. -Giovanna P.

4. I’m gonna use the same water bottle for the rest of my life, I’ve decided. -Julie A.

5. Get even more creative with our composting. We now have 15,000 earthworms, and for 2011 we are getting our own chickens! -Pogo S.

6. When I’m driving somewhere, I’ll leave early so I don’t speed, saving gas. -Peter M.

7. I’m going to try not to use more than 10 plastic/brown paper grocery bags in the year, which means always carrying a reusable bag. -Khary B.

8. Save money by making some eco-friendly laundry detergent: 1 cup shaved castille soap, 1/2 cup borax, 1/2 cup washing soda. Use 1 teaspoon, and your clothes smell fresh right out of the laundry. It takes 10 minutes to make! -Leslie D.

9. No more poisonous household cleaners. The best cleaning solution I have ever used is a mixture of vinegar, lemon juice, and salt. That works on almost everything. For tough jobs like bathrooms, just sprinkle a little baking soda, then the spray, watch it fizzle, and voila! -Neeraj U.

10. I just follow my mother’s Depression-era dictum: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without! -Meg B.

And as for me? My backyard is priority number one. It’s been looking downright feral since the end of the summer. Then there’s my bike, which isn’t doing anyone any good sitting on the back porch. After yardwork and bike fixing, who knows? Chickens?

What are you going to do for the planet in 2011? Share your resolutions in the comments.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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