10. Psst! Pass It On
Tell friends, family, elected officials, and anybody within shouting distance how important the environment is to you. Spread the word like wildfire to educate others in helping us increase sustainability and the lifespan of our planet.

9. Give the Sound System a Siesta
Just turn off electrical equipment and lights, and turn down the heat and air conditioning, By turning down heaters and air conditioners to save the ozone from literally tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year! The US might only be 5% of the world's population, but it accounts for more than 20% of global warming.

8. Play in the Dirt
Quit throwing out those table scraps that account for 30% of American waste. Don't even send them down the drain! Why not create a compost bin to make those tidbits into feed for the earth! It even makes a great free gift for green thumbs, and it saves 700 pounds of trash from your home from going to the landfill! Check out the library or sites like Care2 http://www.care2.com for more info.

7. Don't Be a Shopaholic
With 48% of paper going to packaging, it's no wonder it hurts the planet. Try to buy goods with less packaging, like bulk items, and reuse as much as you can, like bags, soap dispensers, and milk jugs.

6. Get Into Trading
Americans generate 200 million tons of trash daily! Instead of sending old clothes, shoes, games, sheets, or anything you're sick of or done with to land fills, pass `em on to local shelters, goodwill stores, or other donation spots. Remember, one person's trash is another's treasure-as well as the Earth's for good measure!

5. Don't Condone Styrofoam
Styrofoam gives off CFCs, depleting the ozone layer faster than you can make a pizza disappear. Boycott the stuff by bringing your own reusable container for fountain drinks, coffee, and hot cocoa, and buy only what you will eat or tote your own take-home containers to restaurants.

4. Slow and Steady Wins the Water Race
Think turning the tap off when brushing those dientes is stupid? Tap water runs at about three gallons per minute. So while you're turning the water off, why not run dishes and laundry on an eco-friendly setting (and the cold cycle on the latter), take short showers, and boycott automatic lawn sprinklers, too?

3. Find a Furry Friend
Each year, 14,000 to 40,000 species are lost, and almost 25% of mammals are endangered. Help out by donating to local shelters, zoos, and conservation programs. Endangered species like manatees, rhinos, and mountain gorillas-of which there are less than 500 left in the wild-have organizations dedicated to saving them exclusively, and can often be "adopted" through donations. Search the Net for groups to get in on, such as Adopt-a-Whale http://www.whalecenter.org or Just Give http://www.justgive.org.

2.Send Your Paper Back
As the world loses 30 million acres of forest each year for paper, why not make sure it gets recycled? Chances are your school or another local place has a program. Can't find one? Why not start your own?

1. Give Meat the Boot
The number one cause of rainforest deforestation-which has 35 million acres lost- is cattle farming. If everyone were to consume less meat, we'd save more rainforest land, millions of gallons of water, 15 tons of soil, over 45% of the world's grain, and other resources used up by meat-making each year.