365 Small Steps Cover a Lot of Ground
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.16.07
We talk often about starting with the easy things (why we like CFL's so much) and sometimes the hard things. Vanessa Farquharson is doing the worst of both worlds, a sort of death of 365 cuts, by doing one new little thing for the environment every day for a year and blogging about it. Perhaps it is penance for her day job as a journalist at the National Post, the House organ for Canada's Climate Change Denial Squad.
She started on March 1 by giving up on paper towels from the Boreal Forest (but not giving up paper altogether, just going to 100% recycled, we did say small steps!) through giving up styrofoam (a much bigger step) to giving up bottled water (great step!) and turning down the thermostat. Forever. On day 9 Vanessa is going for local food (but sometimes bananas are OK.) On day 12 Vanessa both cheats and I think gets it wrong (hey, saying you are NOT going to buy a microwave does not count as doing something, and if you are reheating something small, a microwave uses a lot less energy than warming up the entire oven. And read Helen here. ) but that is a minor quibble. Just be sure to go for 366 to make up.
Small Step Woman, No Impact Man, so many people out there, we could start a dating service or a superhero club. Send in comments with your ideas for small steps that add up and we will see if we can help her out at ::Green as a Thistle
Vanessa's tips are, for the most part, ridiculous. She actually advocates getting rid of the fridge! That truly is NOT humanly possible.
Further, she says that we should dispose of our vehicles and walk to work. I live in the burbs like the rest of America and I sure as heck don't want to abandon my BMW and it's air conditioning just to save an ounce of carbon!
John it is humanly possible to give up your fridge - Vanessa has already done it for almost a year. Now that her challenge is over she's said she may not plug it back in again. Her final post is actually quite compelling and she summarizes the whole experience quite succinctly.
http://greenasathistle.com/2008/02/29/the-final-post/
Your comment about driving an air conditioned BMW and living in the burbs speaks volumes about what is wrong with North America and why it needs a fundamental paradigm shift. The suburbs are soul destroying wastelands, that in the coming years as oil becomes more scare and far more expensive, will become slums on massive scale. Check out James Howard Kunstler's talk at TED:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/121
North Americans have to stop building sprawl and car centric cities. We need to change the way we design things and live or America will be relegated to the "has-been" pile of once mighty empires. Think about the big picture instead of focusing on what you can do to make a difference. I applaud Vanessa's effort and have found it incredibly inspiring. Hopefully many others will follow her lead and make those changes too.