I am in no way a tree hugger but I watched Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” recently and, despite his soporific speech, was captivated. We are so trashin’ this joint.

I didn’t plan to go green — it’s become so trendy it’s nearly clichéd.

Still, I confess that for years I have been daunted by the Go Green movement — not willing to join but feeling guilty about my apathy.

My family and I recently moved from Washington D.C. to Cary. Our new home did not have a washer and dryer so with Al still whispering in my ear, I bought the eco-friendly Bosch Nexxt 500 Series. To be honest, I was lured more by the fact that it can wash 16(!) pairs of jeans in one load than by its energy efficiency, but I didn’t whisper that back to Al.

My husband and I eagerly loaded it up for its maiden voyage (it really can hold a lot) and sat there like googley-eyed zombies watching our clothes tumble through the front-loading window. It must be broken, we thought, as there didn’t seem to be any water in there.

Get this:
It turns out that that’s the whole point — it hardly uses any water! And you barely need to add detergent (no joke, about two tablespoons). It’s like the miracle of the loaves and fishes. And whoa, I kid you not; the clothes do come out cleaner and brighter. So, not only am I helping the environment while saving money, but I’m also dressed in fresh bright whites, halfway to Nirvana from watching my clothes spin.

We then needed a new lawn mower so with images of melting snow caps, drowning polar bears and brewing-while-we-speak category-five hurricanes, I purchased a Black & Decker electric mower from amazon.com.

It’s the bomb.

The best part (well, besides saving the Earth) is that you don’t have to pull that #@!! cord anymore. You simply insert a key, turn it and . . . BAMMO . . . it’s ready to go. Yet another miracle. When I’m done, I simply return the mower to the garage and plug it back in for next time. No more running out of gas or forgetting to add oil, and it doesn’t smell bad and I don’t have to look like a fool spastically yanking a stubborn pull-cord.

There are some very simple ways each and every one of us can Go Green, even if we do so reluctantly. If you would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, try lighting a CFL bulb instead (you know, the funky looking ones with the white swirly tubes). Just one new bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. According to energystar.gov, if every American replaced just one bulb, it would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year (that’s an awfully big number). Imagine taking 800,000 cars and their harmful emissions off the road for a year — that’s how much waste all of us can save by changing just one light bulb.

One silly looking bulb can do all this?

It gets better. Each bulb saves you 30 percent in electrical costs and, whoa, the bulbs last 10 times longer than regular bulbs. Selfishly, I love the notion of changing burnt-out bulbs 10 times less often.

Energystar.gov reports that the bulbs use 75 percent less energy while producing 75 percent less heat. Dig that — they’re Wonder Bulbs!

Emboldened by my growing greenness, I replaced each and every light bulb in our new home with CFLs: we now use 28 of these swirly numbers. And our house is small. Imagine if all the rich people in their huge houses changed their millions of bulbs. We could save gazillions maybe bazillions of dollars while slashing harmful emissions by a sizable fraction (you may want to check my math).

Going green is not an all-or-nothing deal. Start by reading the list of 10 simple things you can do (climatecri sis.net/takeaction) and try just one.