I am worried about climate change. I’m extra worried about the impact it will have on my kids. But I know that fear doesn’t do anyone any good. You have to do something about it, face your fears. That’s why I continue to make changes to how I run my music business.

I’m taking baby steps to change how I do little things. Sometimes they take a bit more time and effort, and I haven’t figured everything out yet. But I can see a difference.

In his latest TED Talk, Al Gore convincingly argues, “it’s not because the technology to draw down carbon pollution isn’t ready. It’s because the people who profit from carbon pollution aren’t ready—and will never be, until regular people apply enough pressure to make them.” (From The Daily Difference newsletter)

I made a big change to my business back in July. I no longer consider CDs my main product. I’m currently focused on Musical Pins (and to a lesser extent Celtic Heartstrings).

However, I still needed a way to display my physical CDs. So I made a CD rack out of cardboard. I still need to color it and make it look pretty. But there is now one rack with all of my CDs for you to look through. You can see the display to the left of the Thank You tip box on the table. It doesn't look great yet… I need to work on that.

Andrew McKee, my fellow Brobdingnagian Bard, and I ran into an organization problem at Dragon Con with the Musical Pins. How do organize and keep track of the pins? A woman at Jordan Con showed me the plastic case she uses. But I’m trying to think about how I can do everything without using plastic.

Knowing my aversion to plastic, Andrew McKee, found a tea box that would do the trick. I'm not ready to spend money. And I have so much cardboard. Perhaps there’s something I could do with it?

So after the convention I designed three small portable boxes to store a small handful of Musical Pins. It doesn’t really solve the problem when you’re selling a LOT of pins. They only store about 5-8 pins. But still. It’s all made of cardboard. Just needs some decorating.

These are very, very small changes. I know that. Recycling cardboard like this will not have a big impact on carbon emissions.

Rather, my hope is that after reading this, you might think about how you can reduce, reuse, recycle and think about things you can do to make an impact on our planet, like supporting musicians, artisans and businesses who support our environment and are proper stewards for the planet. Only then can we force the hand of corporations to stop polluting our planet.

And if I may humbly suggest that it seems to be working. A decent number of people bought my new Kilted For Your Pleasure Musical Pin. The first orders go into the mail today.

But also The Langer's Ball released new merch today. Two of the items they added to their Bandcamp store were “Album Pins”. I don't know if I had a hand in them using that term, if they came up with the term independently, or if they heard it through the grapevine. But they're using it. Musicians are embracing the idea. That's a big step to big change!