We’ve come a long way baby… August 16, 2007
I’ve got a couple of small victories to celebrate. First of all, I got it together and bought a canvas shopping bag. Now, I have finally had a week run of remembering to take it to the store! Yea! Progress! Painted Maypole—I’m really glad you brought up the issue of how to navigate the awkward social situation of handing your own bag to the cashier. I still feel shy about this for some reason even though I’ve had nothing but uneventful bag handing experiences. I just put the bag on the conveyer belt with the rest of the groceries and the cashier uses it; no questions no comments. As an aside, I happen to have bought a really pretty bag with a picture of a forest on it that says, ‘Reuse, Recycle—Save a Tree.’ I think having a bag I like has helped me remember take it to the store. Whatever works…
I’d also like to give a cheer to John and Joe who carpool to work everyday thus halving their gas and emissions. Good job, guys! I heard about a service on line that puts people together for trips to common places like Target, etc. I thought it sounded like a great idea but one that might take a while to catch on. Has anybody tried anything like that?
And on a more ideological scale; I was recently reminded of how far we’ve come as a consumerist culture in general. I happened to turn on HBO when the early nineties movie Singles had just started, so I decided to watch it even though when I saw it originally, I could barely sit through the whole thing because of how much it reminded me of my own lame dating life at the time. This time around, I was struck by the fact that the Kyra Sedgwick character worked at an environmental defense type not for profit and her love interest Campbell Scott played a traffic engineer who was working on the plans for a ‘super train’ for Seattle commuters. As it turns out (spoiler alert) Campbell Scott’s proposal is rejected by the mayor, but more shocking is that his train idea is also rejected by his environmentalist girlfriend whose rationale is “I love my car.” Could this be a believable, and not alarmingly hypocritical exchange now, 15 years later? I don’t think so. I think we are, as a whole, making some progress in how we think. I think that when we as individuals hand a canvas bag to the cashier, buy recycled toilet paper, use more efficient light bulbs, choose more viable means of transportation, and in other ways make sensible and more sustainable choices we are not only helping the environment by lessening the total carbon load on the planet, but we are sending a message to everyone around us—We’re all in this together. Power to the people! Power to the planet!
Can Good Vibes Save the Environment? August 7, 2007
Every time I see Viva paper towels advertised, I go slightly mad. Furthermore, I think I am becoming annoying. I’m worried that if I mention CALPIRG or cloth napkins one more time, someone may take a swing at me. This is all a result of my growing hopelessness which is quickly followed by the none too pleasant thought, “If everybody would just get on board here, we would be living in a smog free, tree loving, non-globally warm environment where everybody drives a Prius and uses solar panels to light their houses.” This is when I begin to hate ‘them,’ realize I am ‘them’, and a cycle of unproductive negativity begins. The thing is, I think unproductive negativity is our worst environmental offender. After all, if I can’t be kind to myself and ease up on the fact that yes, I forgot to bring bags to the grocery store for the 26th time (Jenni I feel your pain), and trusting of the rest of the world to make positive changes at their own pace, I’m not only part of the problem, I’m actually creating the problem.
That being said, I want to promote a great blog by a woman who is also trying to be part of the solution by doing what she can do. She has some great ideas for simple steps to try to make the world a greener place to be (Karen, she’s got some wonderful posts about her experiences composting and other nifty ideas).
