This post is written in sadness and anger. Also it has nothing to do with Shaw in particular, but the planet Shaw resides on. Hopefully I’ve edited it in a way that it makes sense.
Going to the greenie save the Earth concert/rally won’t save the Earth.
Changing one light bulb from incandescent to CFC, won’t do it either.
Neither will recycling do it either.
They are great starts to greener living. But those little things won’t solve anything if we keep clinging to and promoting lifestyles that undermine and cancel out green efforts. Or worse mocking, demonizing, and criminalizing others efforts to live green or simply. The New York Times did a piece almost calling people who live green mentally ill. One of the subjects in the article, a Jewish woman who cooks and heats the house with a wood burning stove, has a beautiful (but long) response, that if you have time you should take a read.
She says several things that I’ll try to sum up. We can’t really expect other countries, like India and China to clean up their emissions and their environment if we can’t lead by example and show that you can have a good quality of life for your citizenry without destroying the planet. We, as Americans, need to find ways that change the American Dream in to a Green American Dream that other nations admire and desire. But we’re not there yet, and only G-d knows if we’ll ever get there.
My dryer, followed by the AC is the biggest energy hog in the house, and that saddens me because I know what the green solution is, and I don’t want to do it because it would crimp my quality of life. Air drying. When looking at my Pepco meter, the dial speeds at 100 mph when the dryer is on. But I will not stand in the way of people who air dry or want clothes lines in their back yards (things that forbidden in many HOAs).
The Green movement in some parts is just another product to be consumed; bamboo sheets, hybrid cars, stuff made from recycled stuff, LEED buildings, organic anything. What of making stuff last longer so you don’t have to keep buying more stuff and having the send your old stuff to the landfill? Keeping and maintaining a 1989 Honda, doesn’t show the world how green you are as well as a 2008 Prius. Buying a eco-sensitive house doesn’t make much sense if it requires a 2 hour commute, part of which is spent idling on the beltway.
This year as a nation we’ve been freaking out about energy and the ability to borrow money so we can go out and buy cars and buy more crap we don’t need. Maybe we should spend more time figuring out how to use less electricity, less gas, less water and how to make cars and other things last longer, and consuming fewer non-necessities.
But until we truly change the way we live day to day, until we find living green rewarding, we are doomed.
I was nodding in agreement as I was reading this. Well said.
I would add that the term “organic”, when applied to food, usually means that you aren’t going to get a bunch of pesticides in your dinner, or eggs from chickens that were feed antibiotics and hormones. “Organic” in that sense means “healthier” rather than “greener”.
— Stama (still thinking about moving away)
Unfortunately it seems that the term ‘organic’ can be manipulated. It’s not so much organics, certified, non-certified or what have you, it’s the idea that it is another product that we buy, that we consume. What makes us greener and healthier are our ‘practices’ and not what we buy. How we heat and cool our homes. How we get to work. How we take vacation, play, goof off. How we landscape our yards. How we remain hygienic and healthy. How we save time and labor.
Stama, I was re-reading my comment and it isn’t meant to argue with you. Organic food is a great start on the producer end of things. A variety of crops, heirloom varieties of things, moving away from acres upon acres of mono-crops is another step.
If you haven’t already check out the Slow Food movement.
“Organic” isn’t necessarily “green” if it’s flown in from halfway around the world, burning tons of fossil fuels on its way to your table. Organic isn’t necessarily healthy either. Organic High Fructose Corn Syrup anyone? No thanks. Eating organic is good, but so is eating local, and so is eating whole, unprocessed foods.
In the past year I’ve been moving away from buying supermarket food and towards buying as much as I can from the farmers market. Whenever I fall back to eating processed foods I usually end up feeling like crap.
Yes, the term “organic” can be manipulated in the same manner as the term “green”. To assume that a thoughtful reader isn’t aware of the possibility is a bit, well, presumptuous.
The reality is that Coca-Cola is likely to jump on the bandwagon and release “Organic Coke” sometime in the future. (yes, really)
The bottom line is that pharms, oops, I mean farms, go for volume and economies of scale rather than quality and nutrient-richness.
Rather than argue with strangers over the internet about what is “good for you” in a society where the majority of the populace is unhealthy, lets look into where “good food” begins: The soil.
Know about NPK and how it is used in modern food production? Is NPK enough as the sole source of nutrients in for your food?
It is the root of the vast majority of calories produced for human consumption in this society, regardless of where we buy that food. Don’t believe a stranger on the internet? Look into it yourself: NPK. Read Pollan’s viewpoint within “In Defense of Food”
-Stama