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To cut energy use, save money and, while you're at it, live a greener life,
you can turn down the air conditioning, back off the accelerator, hop on a bike.
But when it comes to your personal energy tally, there's another big but not as
commonly considered source: The stuff you buy. Every product, from televisions
to teapots, takes energy to get to the shopping bag -- energy to mine raw
materials, make the product and ship it.
Yet that use goes unreported in Oregon's tracking of greenhouse gases and
energy. And because Oregonians consume and throw away more stuff than ever, it
amounts to a big blemish on the state's famously green complexion.
Come 2010, Oregon probably will declare victory on its goal of stabilizing
global warming emissions -- even as worldwide emissions driven by the
consumption of the state's residents and businesses actually go up.
"From the perspective of John Q. Public, who's ...