Co-op America (of which we are members through our sister company Fuzbaby) is promoting their 12-step plan for climate action.

Scientists at the Princeton University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI) have taken up this challenge, and propose stabilizing carbon emissions by dividing this huge task into smaller, doable action “wedges” of equal size—each with the capacity to reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion tons/year by 2054. CMI lists 15 possible “wedges,” out of which we need to achieve just seven to reach carbon stabilization.

Co-op America has filtered these wedges to give us the strongest 12 steps we can take.

1. Increase fuel economy
2. Cut back on driving.
3. Increase energy efficiency.
4. Decrease tropical deforestation to zero.
5. Stop soil erosion.
6. Increase wind power.
7. Push hard for solar power.
8. Increase efficiency of coal plants.
9. Replace 1,400 gigawatts of coal with natural gas.
10. Sequester carbon dioxide at existing coal plants.
11. Develop zero-emissions vehicles.
12. Develop biomass as a short-term replacement for fossil fuel.

What should you do? Ask state legislators, members of Congress, business people, and others with power to make these changes. Learn about one (or more) options and write letters to the editor. Talk to people. Help those around you see the necessity and possibility of change if we ac now.

A friend of mine has joined the Compact, a group of people in San Francisco agreeing to buy nothing new in the coming year except food, health and safety items, and underwear. They are taking Reduce, Reuse, Recycle a step further in their effort to step outside the consumer machine. Good for them!

This could be seen as part of the voluntary simplicity movement.

What is more simple than cloth diapers, especially flat cloth diapers made with nothing but organic cotton? Better yet, cut up old towels, use what you have on hand. Remember that diapers and diaper covers can be simple tools to do a simple job.

In the Diaper Underground, I have watched several cloth diaper generations* reinvent the same diapers several times. It is fascinating to see mothers meet similar situations with similar solutions. I don’t see a problem with us all finding personal solutions to the fact of babies’ elimination, but I would suggest that we don’t necessarily need to reinvent the solutions. Women (and, yes, I mean women) have been creatively addressing this need for a long time before the internet made the Diaper Underground possible. We may not be able to reach easily into the deep past, but we have several generations of knowledge just waiting for us to ask. Even if your mother diapered you in the passing era of throwaway diapers, your grandmother should know cloth diapers. Ask her.

Asking your grandmother, interviewing her, and collecting a cloth diaper oral history from her is the point of Real Diaper Association’s project Your Grandmother Should Know. This year-long project is the RDA’s annual educational campaign to fulfill the mission of the organization. This year, we “connect current cloth diapering parents to the long history of cloth diapering.” We will support members in collecting interviews during this year, then collect those interviews in various formats the following year. What we do depends on what we get, but we have an active DJ looking for audio and a Real Diaper Circle creating an instructional video already.

We don’t have to convince ourselves that it is necessary to reinvent cloth diapers. The knowledge was never lost. You can learn about cloth diapers the same way your grandmother and her grandmother did, face-to-face from the women with experience.

Would you like to participate in the project by interviewing your grandmother, your mother, or any other person who remembers using cloth diapers? Join us. You don’t need to be an RDA member to participate (though we would love to have you join). To start, read about the project and make a plan. I have created Project Guidelines available as a book ($10.95) or as a free download for you to print yourself.

* A diaper generation is about 2 years — the time it takes one child to grow out of diapers.

Your Grandmother Should Know:
An Oral History of Cloth Diapers from RDA

If you are trying to do your best for the environment, here is another way to tie yourself up in knots. You may have heard of the Buy Local movement. You may see “Buy Local” stickers and signs at some of your favorite independent bookstores and food coops. How far can you take the idea of buying local?

Local food. The local food movement encourages us to buy from local farmers. This has had enough of an impact on the global food industry that market research studies are now available on the impact of the Buy Local movement on the industry. When we act on our desire to support local agriculture through our diets, we have an impact on economy, health, and community. Less fossil fuel is required to bring our food from field to table. Local foods often have less packaging. We eat food sooner after it is harvested. We support the local economy, especially small farmers.

100-Mile Diet. We can make eating local more specific. When two concerned Canadians launched their 1-year experiment with a 100-Mile Diet last year, they got a lot of attention. Others joined in, started their own 100-mile diets, and reprinted the original blog entry like crazy.

Dress local. We can also take the idea even further. Dress local, too. In their “Hunt for an Ethical Wardrobe & The Soul of Cloth,” two other Canadians set out to buy only “locally designed and manufactured” clothing. A blog entry from The Tyee, the same site that hosted the 100-mile diet declaration, tells the story of their 100-mile wardrobe. The Organic Consumers Association has reprinted the original blog entry as well as an Utne Reader article about dressing local.

How can you bring this idea home? Buy local, of course. If you are fortunate, you may find that local businesses have already formed a business network. The day I write this, organizations local to me are featured at Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE): spotlight Salt Lake City and the organizations Vest Pocket Business Coalition and Local First Utah. Look! There are some of my favorite stores, and many of them are SLC e2 businesses (environmentally and economically sustainable, just like I’m an SLC e2 citizen trying to become carbon neutral). BALLE is a network of over 5,000 local businesses in 30 networks. Find a local business network near you.

Your Local Economy. What has this to do with you besides encouraging you to consider the vitality of your own local economy? Well, that is the point. In the Diaper Underground, a lot of people buy diapers that travel a long way before they reach the baby, and materials already travelled a long way before the diapers were manufactured. You can slow the burn of fossil fuel and participate in your local economy if you buy locally manufactured cloth diapers.

1. Use your zip code to check the 100-mile diet map.

2. Check cloth diaper directories and parenting groups to find local cloth diaper manufacturers or retailers within your 100-mile radius. Try a location search at Diaper Pin.

3. Buy local diapers.

4. Tell me if it works.

I don’t know if there are enough small cloth diaper manufacturers that this can work, but I would like to know how it goes.

Add Life and Connection to Economy. What is the benefit? Real life is face to face. Deep knowledge is face to face. I have always been happy to deliver local packages personally because I want to meet the families who use Firefly Diapers. I did this when we lived in Buffalo, New York, and I do this now in Utah. When I moved back home to Utah last fall, my very first paying customer from many years ago was among the first to welcome my family and invite us for dinner. Last week, I spent a lovely afternoon at a local park with one of my earliest customers, and I have plans to spend an afternoon next week with one of my most enthusiastic current customers. Two of these women, as a matter of fact, have been long-time collectors of Firefly Quick Dry Color Diapers (and you can see their colorful Firefly Diapers stashes here). Buying local creates more than an economic network. It adds life and connection to the local beyond the experience of consumption.

When I founded Real Diaper Association, I built the philosophy of local communications into the structure of the organization through Real Diaper Circles. People have passed knowledge of cloth diapers face to face through generations. This is the idea behind our new oral history project, Your Grandmother Should Know (more on this later). You can reclaim that local knowledge and your local economy through simple steps.

Support your local diapermaker. Buy local diapers, and create a 100-mile diaper stash.