How green do you go?

I was fortunate to have an "environmental epiphany" when I was a young man. I won't go into that, other than to say that I "sensed" the unity of life in an extremely potent way. As a result, I looked over the years for ways to become responsible for and to that unity. I recycle - BFI doesn't offer recycling service where I live, so I take stuff into Memphis. I replace all my light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs years ago. I replaced all my appliances with "energy star" appliances. My icon is the Honda Insight I drive. I pay $30/month premium so that energy I use in my home comes from renewable sources. This is through Sterling Planet.

http://www.sterlingplanet.com/

I write my senators and representatives, often - to no avail. They are probably sick of hearing from me.

I don't know what would motivate others. From my experience, example doesn't do it. Pray for people to have "epiphanies", I guess.

What steps are you taking? It isn't very exciting: I take Metro Transit to work instead of driving, group errand trips together, recycle, avoid using too many chemicals around the house.

And what obstacles prevent you from doing more? My vacations are usually road trips and I can't bear to give them up, nor do I plan to make them all biking. Its just that I love driving on an open road. If I have to pay more for gas or buy carbon neutral credits I will.

Frankly, sometimes I have to apply a filter to those that are givin' me the holier-than-thou uber recycling talk. As you mentioned "new methods" I've often thought that recycling could use some new poster children and a simple, sweet marketing push that is has high visual/appeal impact and low paper/waste impact.

Not to go much further on a tangent but when I donate money to a "green" organization, nothing turns me off more than getting boatloads of paper marketing materials from them.

I try to live a humble life as close to the earth as possible. I don't often succeed. I try to choose low-energy activities rather than high-energy ones. Sometimes I think the less I do, the better. I try to welcome and encourage newcomers to the green movement. Don't expect the world to change for you. The best thing about a green life is the green life itself.

It is interesting to watch this new attention to green priorities. As usual the politicians, social elite, and demagogs are rushing to be in front, trying to take credit for making change happen. That's fine. Part of the green life is to stop taking credit, stop living on credit, and stop giving credit. Green people stay close to the natural cycles and try to ignore all the mindless cultural hubbub. Participate in the growing, gathering, and laying up of food. Be mindfull of the earth and her needs. Enjoy undisturbed nature, and do what you can to stop disturbing her. Be grateful for what you are given. Take care of your friends and neighbors. Build community. Deal with your own waste. Know where your water comes from. Don't pee in the pool.

And, as Julie has asked, just shut up about it. Not to say that you can't talk and communicate, but if what you do is merely green camoflage, while you continue to pursue exploitive, repressive, and greedy tactics, you are lacking truth. I can give you many examples of that.

So welcome, conservatives, to conservation. Wecome, church-goers, to the altar of unbroken stone. Be careful where you tread, excuse the dust, keep in mind that we all have to live here while it is under construction. There is no where else to go when it is being remodled. Welcome home.

Richard

Richard H, I like your last paragrph the most.
And those that are starting to wonder, good morning, what did they expect.
Personally, when I go for a walk with my kids, we pick up cans and recycle them, now they have the habit of doing so. I do the usual stuff: recycle, drive a 4 banger and minimize the miles, talk to frends about green and buy them compact fluorescent bulbs, call elected officials, keep the temp low in the house, 59 at night, eat a macrobiotic diet Etc. Etc. It seems that people have a hard time relating their actions to the environmental problems we face.
We all know that being overweight is not a good idea, but people in this country are NO 1 in the world in that category and you are talking at very personal level. So to expect the environment to matter much may be asking too much.
Perhaps a massive marketing campaign that shows how cool green is would be a start with political leaders leading by example, Ha Ha. well we do have the Governator.

I do the regular stuff--recycle, shut off lights, lower the heat (despite my parrents always trying to put it back up), walk, etc. I also try to raise awareness of the fake green solutions, such as corn ethanol (specifically corn, not sugar cane or cellulosic), current hydrogen production (produced mostly from natural gas, but also oil and coal), and many other technologies

Richard-
that last paragraph is pure poetry. If you have read The Creation by E.O. Wilson you are familiar with his proposal to enlist Chritianity in the War to save our planet. I think that is a lingering problem, Many evangelicals are AWOL on preserving what they think of as the work of God. Too busy planning for the rapture I guess.

I have a win win project. I gather up around 100 pounds of aluminum cans per year from the roads within 1 mile of our house and recycle it. It only makes me around 30 dollars, but I prevent the use of alot of fossil fuel that way as it takes many times as much energy to smelt aluminum ore as it does to melt pure aluminum. The other win is that I get exercise and fresh air which would otherwise not happen, as i live in a very boring suburban area. The other carbon footprint stuff I do is mostly save money stuff like compact fluorescent bulbs. I really want to buy a Prius, but with one daughter in college and another on the way there it would probably make us go bankrupt. Someday.....

Correction on my math. Aluminum is now 50 cents a pound so I make 50 bucks a year. But it's not the money obviously.

Richard H. I really liked your comments and especially "welcome church-goers to the altar of unbroken stone". I'm taking a course right now on Religion and Ecology and we're learning about how impactful peoples' worldviews are on their treatment of nature and the natural world. Christianity as the dominant western religion has been especially mistaught to give us the idea that humans are masters of the natural world, and also that God will take care of his children no matter what we do to the earth. It's time for a new worldview and respect for nature and our part in the natural world must be taught to children from the time they are born. In the meantime, individual action has more impact than you realize -- what you drive, eat and how you play are all important. Also, pressure on your politicians must be kept up. Good luck, everyone. We're all in this together whether we like it or not.

I was a crazy ultra conservationist when I was in my early 20's.
Now life's many challenges have softened my resolve and my idealism. Which is too bad.
Currently I drive a car that runs on old vegetable oil that I get from a restaurant then filter. That's straight oil, not biodiesel. For anyone willing to do the extra work, running your car for free and doing a small part in helping is pretty awesome. The fossil fuels issue is probably the most important cause to me right now.

I also don't buy bottles of water anymore, those things are a nightmare: more waste and more wasted fossil fuels. I have a reusable jug that I fill with filtered water from my tap.
There is so much to do and be done.

This might sound stupid, but I think it actually has to become trendy for everyone to care. We are such a culture of apathy. People just want to go home, tune out, watch TV, see what's new with Brad and Angelina eat dinner and go to bed. This attitude has to change.

Julia, I love your last paragraph1 Oh so very maddening, when you give to a gree good casuse or organization, and then for months on end, you get all that paper! All goes to my compost. I try to compost as much as will break down. You have to be careful to make sure it is printed with soy ink, and real paper, but in a "hot" bed, it all breaks down.

Richard, I, too, really like you last paragraph, so very well said.

I grow, and raise as much of our own food as possible, chickens, for eggs and meat, and their droppings. Ducks, for eggs ,and meat. Garden for alot of our food stuffs, and then put it up for the winter. We try as a family, niot to tread veery hard on Mother Earth.

I am always looking for more and better ways to do so. Great article. A 10

In the trend - green, and greening -- I suggest you follow the money.

Useful Example
______________________

When the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) comes out in public announcing they are now the experts on green home design and green building, as they have at their 2007 Home Builders Show, Orlando, FL (areas near "The Rat" are not noted for sustainable development) you can rest assured ___ it ___ is entering the main stream.

Why does this "test" matter? Well for one thing as few as 5 years ago NAHB -- the 800# gorilla of trade associations -- was fighting tooth and nail to tamp down standards and code changes that would make new homes more energy efficient, less likely to kill their buyers with indoor air pollution, or rot from the core due to uncontrolled moisture. Ahh, the core sections of any reasonable green building guide.

It was only after countless hours of effort by inventive eco-entreprenurs, environmentalists, engineers and architects developing the deep background (plow the field, plant the wheat, pull weeds, harvest, thresh, grind flour, kneed the bread...) creating the market pull by creative means, that along comes said Silver-Back, snorting and pounding chest that

- "we are the champions of the (green homes) world"

[apologies to Freddie Mercury]

So, when you go house shopping for example, be careful who is telling you that new home is "green." Is it really? How can you tell?

Who says - the well dressed fox with the briefcase in front of the sales room?

Or is it the innovative architect or consulting engineer, with their hands dirty and their mind actually around how to really integrate all the elements of green into a comfortable, healthy, energy efficient, durable home that is good for your pocketbook and helps to save our planet.

Beware the Key-Lime Green home a builder tells you is...
it just may have been blessed by that all-knowing gorilla

So follow the money, but
be careful where you step when gorillas are around...

More: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=147

The idea of being "green" doesn't motivate me as I still equate "green" with hippies, vegetarians, radicals, etc.

However, I embrace the concepts of "green" and keep trying different things to "lighten my footprint" on this earth. For example, I recently moved to an apartment close to downtown so I could use public transportation and walk instead of using my van all the time.

I do think that the movement should change their tactics to make living a 'green' life more socially acceptable than ignoring environmental issues.

I've gone green for multiple reasons. As a student at school, eating meat isn't the best option (nor is eating anything at the dining halls, but meat's the worst).

Walking to and fro class and work is not that hard. In the Piedmont region, it's fairly flat so it's mostly about consuming time and not so much exhaustion although it does burn a good bit of calories walking several miles a day. I believe I've only rode the bus 3 times in my nearly two years at school now.

I always try to never use the AC or heat, despite living in a shitty old dorm that is horrible for energy conservation. I only use it under conditions that demand it.

Lights are almost never on. Laptop power use is put on a minimum. Unfortunately I still watch plenty of TV (1-2 hrs a day).

There's still much more I can do and will try to. As much as it is being green and getting healthy, it's also about getting used to a low-energy lifestyle so when I'm on my own, I'm not burning green and so that I'm used to the living.

If I will have a small air plane to fly around Luzon. See the damage done by failure of government to impose restoration of forest, denuded by logging and burning the remains. My father worked closely with the forestry people. He was in the logging business for more than 30 yrs. There was no plan to renew the forest ecology. Many mountains becomes waste land with no vegetation for the animals. If I have only 20 more years to live with the financial and manpower - I feel obliged to restore the forest.

Unfortunately, the big thing I do is negated by what my husband does. I bike to work when weather permits and take public transit when it doesn't. He drives all night delivering pizzas for a living.

We recently bought reusable bags for grocery shopping and that's been a really great thing. We never have trouble with the handles ripping now. :) We keep the bags right next to the front door so we always see them when we leave to go shop.

I work at IKEA and am constantly amazed by their environmental focuses. I believe that by 2011 (it may be sooner, I can't recall right now) we will be using 100% renewable energy to run the store here in Bloomington!