Like a few other carbon calculators-gone-social, BBC’s Bloom site presents 50 carbon-fighting actions from line-drying your clothes to traveling by train. With Bloom’s actions, you can see how many other users have pledged, learn more about the impact an action will have, and invite your friends to pledge with you.

The best fun to be had here is to cruise through Bloom’s flash-animated collection of actions represented by colourful beans placed in a spiral. Watch the bean sprout and bloom when you adopt an action. Sure, the site’s a bit UK-centric, but us Canucks never seem to mind. British accents and lingo are a ceaseless source of amusement for many of us.

If you’re motivated visually, check out Bloom today. Raising Spaces also recommends World Wildlife Fund’s Canadian version The Good Life. It tracks your carbon emission reductions with each simple action you take while allowing you to challenge your friends to some friendly carbon cutting fun.

Believe it or not, you can drastically reduce your carbon emissions

this summer without having to afford a several hundred dollar appliance purchase.

These 8 carbon-cutting actions offer fun and easy choices you can make to fight climate change.

1. Grow something tastier than grass

According to calorie-count.com, one hour of gardening will take care of 280 calories – about one grande Starbucks whole milk latte. Plus, New Brunswick’s Fallsbrook Centre tells us that the average meal travels 2400 Km to reach our plates. That’s roughly the distance between Montreal and Winnipeg – every meal!

Not only does gardening save us fuel and cash while melting off the calories, it’s ridiculously rewarding and a great way to connect with nature – literally. Three nights ago, I proudly made a scrumptious casserole with my own home-grown home-canned tomatoes. It doesn’t get much better than that. Read the rest of this entry »

The numbers are in: 8 million or half of Canada’s adult population participated in Earth Hour. But critics of recent Earth Hour expressed that ‘One hour is not enough!’ Thankfully, the organizers agree, and have partnered with World Wildlife Fund Canada’s The Good Life program to offer tips like this one:

Almost 90 per cent of the energy used to wash clothes goes into heating the water. You can save as much as $100 a year by changing to cold wash and rinse, and about130 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions. If every household in Canada switched to cold in their washing machines, about 1.5 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions would be saved. That is the equivalent to taking 250,000 cars off the road for one year! (The Good Life)

Think it’s only a drop in the bucket?? The difference you make becomes truly visible when you join thousands of other Canadians who are also “making simple but significant changes in their lifestyles to help fight climate change and reduce their footprint on the planet.” (The Good Life)

Already living as green as you can? Join anyway to see the measurable results of collective action. The Good Life allows you to register action you’ve taken as far back as a year ago!