The Furious Spinner

Uncle Sam is pointing a finger at you. Maybe we should have a poster of Mother Earth pointing at all of us and saying, "What can you do?" Better yet: "What are you doing?" Janisse Ray has a great piece in Orion about what each of us is doing to help the planet (and ourselves). She talks about going to environmental conferences and wondering if that in itself is very environmental. People drove there, flew there, and then eat off paper plates using plastic forks. I've wondered those same things many times when I'm attending some function like that. Maybe instead of blaming the government for what's happening to the planet, what are we doing about it? How are each of us changing our lives to make a smaller impact on the environment? Mario and I compost, recycle, garden, use an electric mower, buy and use recycled paper, buy organic and local foods, and limit how often we drive our car, but we do indeed drive a car. It gets what passes for decent mileage (about 35 mpg), but I think that's terrible given I drove an 8 cylinder 1973 Camaro that got about 25 mpg twenty-seven years ago.

We also don't use any chemicals in our house or in our lawn. We don't use any aerosol sprays of any kind. We don't use plastic bags. We are writers, however, and our books are not published on recycled paper. Yet. We're hoping that will happen soon. But we're also going on a long car trip, and we do go on a long car trip once a year. We make certain our car is tuned, our tires are pressurized correctly and in good condition, and we only stay at places that are "green" and/or don't use chemical pesticides.

We are involved in our community and in the political process. We advocate at our work places for the use of green nontoxic products, such as no-VOC paints and no-VOC carpeting and no pesticides. We write letters to our elected officials, put up signs, make phone calls, and keep ourselves informed. We hire local people when we need work done around our house that we can't do, and we pay them fair wages. But we also use electricity. In the summer, we use the air conditioner for several days. All year round we run HEPA filters to clean the air.

We could do so much more and we're looking forward to finding ways to make our carbon footprint smaller and make ourselves better citizens.

I'd be interested to know what you're doing. I need ideas!

The other day some friends came over to play cards with us. It was great fun. My friend had brought some fruit over in a plastic bag and wanted to leave the bag with us. We said, no, we don't use plastic bags and we don't want any in our house. In Ireland, Mario said, they call them witch's knickers because they end up in trees everywhere. They're a blight on the whole planet.

Our friend asked us what we used instead. Cloth bags. Sometimes paper bags, not a great solution but better than plastic. And cellulose bags for produce. They're reusable and we keep a stack of them. They're made from corn starch, and that has consequences, too, of course, especially if they're made from non-organic corn.

"Where do you get those?" my friend asked.

"They have them at the co-op," I said. "They're twenty-five cents each."

She gasped. I held one in my hand to show her. "For those? Twenty-five cents!"

It was as though I had suggested something obscene: to pay that much money for a reusable bag when you could get a plastic bag for free? Was I crazy? This was someone who had just flown to New York and spent three weeks there going to the U.S. Open. I'm not implying there was anything wrong with her going to New York. But her outrage was so strange. The amount she spent on coffee during that trip would have paid for her cellulose bags for a year or more.

My point is the same point Scott Ritter had when he was discussing Waging Peace. Are we consumers or citizens? And let's redefine what being a consumer means. A good consumer buys products which are produced fairly and sustainably. A good consumer buys well-made products which last. A

When did we become a country of cheapskates?

Labels: democracy watch, sustainability

1 comments

1 Comments:

My efforts may not seem "green" but they are certainly in the best efforts of our planet. I am currently in Washington, DC mounting a solitary vigil urging my government's leaders to negotiate with Iran not bomb them. You can see my photos by going to http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/iran_vigil and read my daily blog at http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/photoaday9

in peace
Patricia

By  Patricia, at 4:55 AM  

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