Most of us are totally oblivious as to how we impact the environment every day. Think about each activity you go through on an average day. How many times you turn lights on and off in your house, whether you keep the TV on when no one's in the room, or even how you drive your vehicle.

There is a term used to describe the measurement of an individual's impact on the earth. Every one of us has our very own carbon footprint, and some Americans' prints are becoming more and more disturbing as we reach new energy crises.

Some of the common things we do to increase our carbon footprints, usually without realizing, are using too many lights in our homes, overusing our air conditioning and heating systems, using too many electronic devices in general, buying and driving vehicles that contribute heavily to pollution, and driving them in a way that is very abusive.

I understand how we have evolved to the people we are today; we need basic things to do what we need to do, and these things use energy.

But this isn't a blog about how these things are bad and how we shouldn't have them. We need to drive places and use basic utilities. This is a blog about how to limit ourselves, and use our resources in a wiser way improve the environment we live in.

We need vehicles. But we do not need large, "souped up" gas-guzzling trucks and SUVS. Even if you do have a vehicle that gets reasonable gas mileage, there are ways to drive even smarter.

Don't accelerate quickly if you don't have to, and don't make too many sudden stops. Your vehicle uses a surprising amount of gas to stop, as it has burn gas to heat up the braking system. If you know you will have to stop soon, coast up to the stop sign or stoplight and then brake.

Keeping up your vehicle and making sure it runs to the best of its potential is also vital. Particularly, the tires and tire pressure. Correct tire pressure enables you to take full advantage of your gas mileage. Have you ever heard the myth which states that if all Americans made sure their vehicles' tire pressure were correct, we would not have to import foreign oil? Myth or not, we might as well try to see if that could be true.

Environmental health may be one of the most overlooked issues in this country. We have a problem with using our resources wisely, and if addressed, we could solve many of the other problems we have in our country today. Think about it; if we have a healthy world to live in, we could in turn become healthier people.

So sit down for a minute or two, and think about what you do each day that could hurt the environment. What can you do, as an individual, to improve our world? If each of us realized how much we can do, how much power each of us has … we could change everything.