I registered to host the Carnival of the Green early last year and it’s surprising how quickly this day has come.

Picking up where Design 21 left off last week and laying the path for next week’s host, Natural Collection, I present to you the Carnival of the Green # 152.

As RealCentralVA is a real estate blog, my personal favorite post is The Greenest Dollar’s Alternative Ways to Heat Your Home.

My Second favorite, due to my shift this year to riding my bicycle around Charlottesville is Zoom Life’s submission –

Zoom Life presents the Top 5 Electric Bicycles of 2008

Electric bicycles, or e-bikes, bridge the gap between bicycles and scooters by giving you a vehicle which is both human and electric-powered. In essence, e-bikes are human-electric hybrid vehicles, with you the rider providing some of the power and the electric motor providing the rest. This means you can go 2 or 3 times as far (and in some cases as fast) as a regular bicycle, and you can do it without breaking a sweat if you don’t want to.

News about Green Living gives us a call to action to buy Mint Essential Oil & Save a Michigan Farm from Foreclosure – both of which are worthwhile.

Crosby Mint Farm (St. Johns, Michigan) is under foreclosure. Because of the historic significance and the desire to continue producing this wonderful essential oil, they are in need of our help. Green Living News is sharing this information with all of our like-minded friends in the hope that they can lend a hand, and acquire some quality mint essential oil in the bargain!

SavingAdvice.com challenges the credit card companies who profess to Change the World With Credit. Is it possible? Doubtful.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with these cards, the idea that you can change the word by using a credit card is sketchy at best and can be dangerous to your wallet. Credit card companies like to do things to make us feel better about our spending and our debt. What could be better than helping some cause you believe in because you are spending, right? The card companies are hoping that you’ll fall for the idea of “helping through spending” and rack up big balances, all in the name of helping some organization. But in reality you’ll feel good all the way to the poorhouse.

Veggie Revolution gives us their reasons for voting for Obama. Personally, I don’t care for whom you vote, just so long as you do. (I’m writing in Ron Paul)

For those who want to (and are able to) crochet, shows us how make our own market bags.

The Cyber-Rain blog demonstrates how Orange County, California can save 25 Billion gallons of water a year! Sure it’s a plug for their product, but why not?

Jeremy Hart with NRVLiving plugs the Green Living and Energy Expo in Roanoke, Virginia.

The Good Human shows us How and Where to Recycle Household E-Waste. Charlottesville’s own Crutchfield Electronics (where I tend to buy my stuff) created an Electronics Recycling Locator.

Whatever you do, please don’t just throw e-waste in the trash – it ends up either being burned and the toxic gasses are released into the atmosphere, or it ends up sitting in a landfill where the toxins to slowly leach into our groundwater. Do the right thing and find an e-waste recycler!

Beth at Fake Plastic Fish calls for a Plastic-Free Blogosphere – a pretty cool call to action. I know I like the feeling of walking out of the grocery store with no plastic bags!

Imagine the change we can make throughout the blogosphere if more people take on the challenge of reducing their plastic consumption and reporting their results online. We’re creating a plastic-free meme that hopefully will ripple out into the consciousness of not only individuals but businesses and bureaucrats alike.

My personal belief is that altruism and “doing the right thing” will carry us to a greener world only so far – – as evidenced by this story describing how funding is getter harder to get for green startups – we need to Go Green to Save Green to achieve a broader adoption of green lifestyles. Profit is a great motivator.

So – thanks to Treehugger for allowing me the opportunity to host the Carnival this week. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity and look forward to next week’s Carnival.