Girlawhirl recently heard a wonderful statistic. A tree will absorb a ton of carbon dioxide over the course of its life. Just one tree!

So now she's all about planting trees. When she shops online, she always participates in programs that allow her to stipulate that purchases are packed with recyclable materials, or even better, at gaiam.com she can ‘zero out' the carbon foot print of her shipping and a whole lot more by adding a couple of dollars to her order and planting a tree through the Conservation Fund's Go Zero program.

Delta airlines and Travelocity.com have also teamed up with the Go Zero program, so when Girlawhirl purchases trips or tickets on those sites, she can immediately ‘zero out' the carbon emissions those trips will generate. And when Girlawhirl books travel elsewhere, she goes to sustainabletravel.org and uses their travel calculator to offset those trips.

She's even thinking that the holidays may include lots of trees, and not just of the decorated Christmas variety. Stay tuned for more information on having trees planted as gifts.