An ode to BLOG ACTION DAY:(Sung to the tune of the "Green Acres" television theme)Blog Action Day's the place for me!Green living is the life for me!Landfills - we have to stem the tide!Let's make conservation acts worldwide!Denial is where I'd rather stay!I'm allergic to Blog Action Day!I just adore not having a clue.Earth, I love ya, but I want my Starbucks brew!Al Gore!No more!Fresh Air!I don't care!This is our earth!How much is it worth?Green living we are there!*****Michael and I have always been environmentally conscious and conscienscious. We're Aquarians--apparently, its in our blood. Or, rather, our stars. We lay awake at night and dream together about living off-the-grid in a completely sustainable community somewhere in a very postmodern hippie-like existence. Of course, I want to have running water and electricity, still. I'm a spoiled sort of environmental activist that way.And come to think of it... why can't we eat our cake and have it, too? Listen, humans aren't stupid, for the most part. There are ways to make it happen. Green building is possible. Green cars. Green EVERYTHING. I long for the day when I reach for a product and I don't have to wonder whether it was created with slave labor or may contain lead. I'm know rather Al-Gore-ish when it comes to this: I want to live in a completely Green World, and this should be our number one priority above any other concern. Education, taxes, immigration, health care, sure, all important political issues--that completely disappear if we have no planet to live on in the first place!Alarmist? Crazy? Noah building an ark perhaps? Maybe.I know there are folks out there with their heads stuck in the sand. Or, to be generous, they don't "believe" there's such a thing as, say, global warming. Welcome to the Flat Earth Society, would you like a cookie? I don't understand how, as a nation, we can be so self-involved that we want to maintain the outrageous levels of denial we've managed to cultivate over the years. I don't know about you, but when someone says, "The sky is falling!" I look up. Perhaps the sky isn't falling. That's certainly a possibility. But maybe... just maybe... the sky is falling.Wouldn't it be better to be safe, than sorry, as my grandmother always used to say?Speaking of grandmothers, we can take a lesson from the indigineous peoples that lived here long before Columbus "discovered" this land and proved (yes, he did, Flat Earth folks... it really happened...) that the earth was, indeed, rather roundish. They had a custom they called "seven generations." Any time a decision was made that would impact the environment (and what decision do we ever make that doesn't impact our environment, I would argue!?) they would take into consideration the impact it would have for seven generations--both forward and behind. In other worlds, they asked themselves, how will this effect my grandchildren's grandchildren's grandchildren? And... What Would the Ancestors Do? (WWAD?) It's not a bad policy. Think we can make it global?Since we moved from the suburbs, I've been even more aware of our environment. Everything is so much more in-your-face when it comes to daily existence. You have to plan and think about rubbish pickup, for example, and have a limit on the amount of garbage they're willing to pick up. You actually count your bags of garbage. We take our recycled items to a center. Whether you "believe" in global warming or not, conservation in and of itself is really a "better safe than sorry" proposition. It just makes common sense. Tell me, why wouldn't you conserve? I'd love to hear a really good reason.Because you're lazy? Because it's too hard? *whine* Because you're too apathetic and what difference does it really make, anyway? The reality is that we don't know what kind of impact we're going to have on future generations. But what it comes down to is this: do you care about what will happen on this planet after you're gone? If you do, then you can't do anything but try to be as much a conservationist as you can manage. And (I'm so weird like this!) I'm always so excited when I find one more way I may possibly be able to impact the future--one more way to be green. So when I ask: what are you doing to make your life more "green?" I really do want to know! The more ideas we share, the better. Because every little bit counts. Yes, it really does.
Here's a list of what we do:
**We consume as much local and organic food as possible
**We recycle and avoid buying things in non-recyclable packaging
**We don't use incandescent lightbulbs (and we recycle the energy saving ones we do use!)
**We conserve water
**We use rechargeable batteries
**We donate our old glasses and cell phones, recycle car batteries, etc.
**I use cloth menstrual pads
**We use cloth napkins
**We use cloth grocery bags
**I don't use toxic cleaners or herbicides (vinegar is a great cleaner, and it makes the house smell like Easter eggs!)
**We compost
**We're planning on installing solar panels next year
**We live as unplugged as we can
**We plant trees with the kids every year
**We refill printer cartridges
**We use energy efficient appliances
**We replace our heating/cooling filters every year
**We take community showers :)
**We hardly ever fly
**We freecycle and cheapcycle and hardly ever buy anything new, from cars to clothes
**We BookMooch
**We're working on the eating less meat thing :x (Michael isn't thrilled about that part.)
**Before we moved, Michael was carpooling, but now it's only six miles to work. Maybe some day he'll ride his bike ;) I'm pulling for telecommuting!
We've also signed hundreds of petitions, written lots of letters to Congress, belong to several conservation groups, etc...
So tell me... what do YOU do? I really want to know!
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