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Julia sets off on an eight-week challenge to reduce her weight...in carbon dioxide emissions.

Monday Jan 01, 2007.     By Julia Steinberger

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That headline was the subject line of an email sent to me by my best friend since third grade, who was a proud greenie even when we were pre-teens. So, if I may dedicate this New Year's resolution, Hanna, this one's for you.

Her email detailed the "Slate Green Challenge," an award-worthy effort on behalf of Slate and Treehugger. Even if you'd been living under an SUV for the past two years, you couldn't have escaped the sobering news about global warming and our woefully lackluster national response. According to Slate, which gets stats from the U.N., the average U.S. citizen creates 44,312 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions in a year, while the average non-U.S. citizen makes 12,000 pounds. And that's not just because developing nations bring down the curve: The average French citizen produces only 13,668 pounds of emissions, still less than one-third of what we're using in the States.

The good news: Cutting carbons on a person-by-person basis is completely doable. The biggest obstacle is finding somewhere to start, and that's where Green Challenge comes in. The eight-week "carbon diet" starts with a weigh-in of your current situation, and helps you make changes week by week toward an eventual goal of reducing your load by 20 percent. I decided there were few better ways to begin 2007, and I logged in.

The program began with a quiz to pinpoint my annual weight in carbon, and that humbling experience alone was enough to get me inspired. I labeled myself an average consumer of gas and electricity (you can take off your sweater at my place in the winter, but I turn off the lights when I leave it), and proudly noted that I always run the washing machine on "cold," even though it's really because I don't want to separate my colors. I'm a vegetarian...bonus! My groceries come mostly from this continent, though I can't claim that I always eat foods from my region. I don't spend a long time in the shower, but I bumped myself to the long-shower category because I run the water full-blast for around five minutes in the morning before it ever gets warm. I don't, however, use a dishwasher. I often (not always) bring my own reuseable bag when I go shopping.

Things get pretty sticky around the transportation section. Turns out that my Taurus gets a measly 21 miles per gallon. After nearly 20 minutes of MapQuesting, scanning my odometer and squashing my vanity, I determined that I drive about 8,000 miles per year. I'm beating the national average of 12,000, but it seems my carpooling habit isn't making me as guilt-free as I'd hoped. Add in the whopping nine short-haul (domestic) flights I took last year, and I weighed in at 27,428 pounds of carbon emissions per year, a total that equals annual emissions from 2.69 passenger cars. The news made me feel like I had a tailpipe.

Luckily, Slate.com immediately redirected me to Green Challenge's first-week assignment: Cut transportation wastes. Fill up my tires and change my air filter? No sweat. But then comes the harder stuff, like driving 25 miles less per week and train-traveling instead of flying short distances. It may not be fair, but because I'm already well below the U.S. average due to my good moves, I'll have to make some major sacrifices to hit my 20 percent reduction goal.

So, when my carpool buddy called to say she needed to drive on her own today, I took the opportunity to catch the bus instead of driving myself, instantly cutting those 25 miles by skipping the round trip to Skokie. It meant getting up early, but I think that's the Challenge's point. It's time to learn that Green won't always just be about the things I like doing. In order to make a serious impact, I'm going to have to think twice about the luxuries I take for granted.

Feel up to the challenge? Try it with me. The Green Challenge program makes things much easier by suggesting loads of tips each week to reduce emissions in different areas of life. I'll let you know how things are going over the next eight weeks as I work toward a greener self. If you want to join in, read the intro and sign up here and let me know how you're doing!

After four greener-than-average college years as a co-op dweller-turned-aspiring-permaculturist, Julia Steinberger finds it hard not to feel guilty about her one-bedroom apartment, daily commute and indulgence in the occasional dollar burger. She'd like to dream that she could live in a tent/treehouse/rabbit hole, but the truth is, she'd rather stay in the city while doing her best to leave a lighter footprint on the earth. You can contact her here.