Since this is Earth Month, and it happens to be spring, why not combine the two by doing your spring cleaning the green way. How do you clean yourself and your house without using harsh chemicals? Send us your tips for green cleaning or tell us about your favorite commercial green cleaning products.

The Alliance for Climate Protection — a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore — has launched the We Campaign, an effort to halt global warming. Please go to the We Campaign site to learn more and speak up for solutions. Together, we can solve it.

Alternative fuels such as ethanol seem to be causing more problems than they solve. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were fuels that could be produced anywhere and didn’t compete with food crops for land? Algae could be one. Check out this report from ENN and let us know what you think.

While we like to celebrate Earth Day every day, the official day actually falls on April 22. Throughout April, check out our weekly podcasts focusing on things each of us can do to help the planet. Find out how easy it is to do your part.

April 22^nd will mark the 38^th annual observance of Earth Day. This celebration to honor the planet has grown to include the entire month of April, and this year we observed an Earth Hour on March 29^th. In some parts of the world, this spirit of concern for Mother Earth has accomplished much since 1970: recycling is more common, rivers and landfills are being cleaned up and our youth are being educated in greenness, as these videos testify.

This article provides excellent reporting on ethanol and how it is leading to the destruction of vast amounts of the Amazon. Sample: "The grain it takes to fill an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year." Check out The Clean Energy Scam and share your thoughts on what we should and shouldn't do about this dilemma.

This Saturday, March 22, is World Water Day, a day of awareness about the people who do not have the luxury of safe drinking water. Most of us think that such a problem can only happen in underdeveloped countries, but the recent news about pharmaceuticals in municipal drinking water in the U.S. and Europe brings the problem to your kitchen faucet.

Those nasty plastic containers. Because it’s so difficult to avoid them completely, we should be aware of the different types out there and their potential for harm. Grist, the Green Guide and the Sierra Club are good places to start seeking information on how to avoid the worst of them. As Francis Bacon once said, knowledge is power.

Here’s my water tip for the week: buy a stainless steel water bottle and, whenever you leave the house for more than an hour, fill it with filtered water and take it with you. This will prevent you from buying a plastic bottle of water when you get thirsty — taking one more plastic bottle out of the recycling stream or landfill. Best of all, it will help keep you hydrated and healthy. (More about those nasty plastic bottles next week.)

Planting your own organic vegetable garden is one of the greenest activities around. Just about anyone can do it, whether it’s a few pots on your apartment balcony or a full-fledged kitchen garden that takes up most of your yard. And now is the time to start thinking about it. Even in the far north, seasoned gardeners are hovering over seedlings in their basement or on their windowsill, anticipating that first frost-free date.