More Thought

Here's one popular vision for saving the planet: Roll out from under the sumptuous hemp-fiber sheets on your bed in the morning and pull on a pair of $245 organic cotton Levi’s and an Armani biodegradable knit shirt.

Stroll from the bedroom in your eco-McMansion, with its photovoltaic solar panels, into the kitchen remodeled with reclaimed lumber. Enter the three-car garage lighted by energy-sipping fluorescent bulbs and slip behind the wheel of your $104,000 Lexus hybrid.

Drive to the airport, where you settle in for an 8,000-mile flight— careful to buy carbon offsets beforehand — and spend a week driving golf balls made from compacted fish food at an eco-resort in the Maldives.

This was from a NY Times article on Sunday called "Buying Into the Green Movement" by Alex Williams. It reminded me a lot of No Logo, by Naomi Klein. Her point in that book was, to be trite, branding is bad. Towards the end of the book, she wrote, I'm not going to create a shopping guide for you. That is exactly what has happened with environmentalism today. We shop at Whole Foods, buy organic, drive hybrids...but that's missing the point! As someone in the article said, true environmentalism is buying LESS. The article was a good wake up call.

Something I've gotten into lately is Freecycle. It's awesome. Every day I get like 30 emails from people who want stuff and who are giving stuff away. Before the move, I gave away bookcases, air conditioning units (boy did I regret that when we had those 90+ degree days), flower pots and soil. I got almost all my moving boxes. I wish I could have given more away. I wish I could go and pick up that dresser someone is giving away!

The point is, I hope I'm recharged, redirected, recommitted. I should consider turning my computer off when I sleep at night, which I do often, but not consistently. Did you know 4% of energy use in the US goes to power televisions! Yikes!