What Would You Do—Really Do—If You Meant All You Said About Saving The World?

Alan,

In response: As a college educated Cherokee/African American in Michigan earning less than $12k I strive to be creative and sacrifice alot. I own a Honda Insight, no tv, but a radio. (my computer has video capability) I share a home w/a friend (think Samwise Gamgee, me being Sam) borrow a friend's land to raise some vegetables, compost (and vermicompost) and have a tiny year round greenhouse. I do cook 4 days out of the week the day's meals (we trade off). I desparately aspire to have a 150 sq ft home off the grid and a pure electric car, commute by bicycle for errands w/in 12 miles and LOVE Amtrak. To prep for trying to get into nursing school I am using homeschool coursework to upgrade my skills and avoid tutoring costs. I do enjoy "grilling" with solar energy in the Spring and Summer, am looking forward to having more LED lighting to replace florescents. I've set up a clothesline in the basement to cut drying costs. I turn off the shower when soaping up or shaving. We have an ultra low flush toilet, high efficiency frig and freezer and a super vacuum cooker (great idea). I owe no major debt (but with such low income can't get a significant loan) I mainly inspire friends and contacts around me (who have resources) to take my ideas and do a much better job. About 5 of my friends bought Prius' because of me (many other people have talked to me, I don't know what they have done.) Others have started organic gardening, seed saving, a couple have done super efficient homes (2500 sq ft McMansions - but efficient)

I am not in balance with what the planet is capable of providing. That is my goal. Reading sites like these with many more ideas than I can entirely incorporate sometimes spark ideas I can adapt. Other times and can pull together diverse unrelated concepts to make something work for me.

i know i've been thinking these things.. and i'm sure a lot of others have been too. in fact i was disappointed when you asked readers for answers - i thought you were going to TELL me how our actions/words can actually DO something. it feels to me that no matter what we do, it will somehow be crushed or hidden or otherwise nullified by the machine. i mean, even the weathermen couldn't stop the war...

so, to answer your question, i know i personally rationalize like hell. "life is too comfortable to start a revolution." that is, no matter what i hear about in the news, no matter what shit is going on in the world, i can still go home and drink beer and play video games and do whatever i want and no one can stop me. if prohibition came back well then i'd have something to say or do...

so, in theory, i think our war is stupid, government can't be trusted, capitalism stinks, the environment should be saved, etc etc etc... but what can i do about it? i fantasize about moving into some frontier area, where i can operate completely outside all of this. if you can't beat them... join them or go where they can't touch you.

another rationalization that makes some sense is something osho said... "the only obligation anyone has to anybody is to increase his own awareness." in that context... sure, drive around your 90 rolls royces. who cares?

anyway, i'm really curious what others have to say... thanks for starting the conversation.

My goal isn't really related to environmentalism directly. I want to help convicts and homeless people turn their lives around through neurofeedback therapy. What I will point out is people in those situations rarely give a thought to helping the environment, because they have worse problems on their minds. Maybe by helping them learn to live a normal life, they could have more time and drive to recycle. Just a thought...

For me, it's always been a priority to live fairly close to work in a modest house and to be able to bike/walk/bus to work and errands. I still own a car, so I do fall into the habit of not being conscientious about it. But a bit more than a year ago I started keeping a driving diary and I've cut back my driving from about 1100 miles a month to right around 600. When I bought my house, I knew I wanted a pre-existing connected house to minimize construction impact. I also shopped for the ability to add solar and to be well within my means. I've always shared my house with at least two other adults. I teach friends in my life about recycling, riding the bus, and ecological concerns without alienating them.

When I read blogs, I look for stories of succeeding or things to try. That's why I spend as much time at Mother Earth News and Instructables as I spend here. I am currently experimenting with sprouting and using ethanol in my car to further cut my emissions.

Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but I genuinely believe I "graze" information as you put it, and use it in my personal life to its best ability. I'm 27, married and recently bought my first house, which puts me on the top rung of working as much as I can just to stay afloat. I admit I also must commute a good distance and purposely bought a more efficient car not for the money it saved, but for the excellent emission performance. I don't eat meat (which I love) for the larger environmental issues, don't use plastic bags, don't use chemical based cleaners and beauty products, and recently renovated my house to be super efficient, etc.

Am I a consumer? Of course, but I always make it my first priority to find ways of completing any given task with as little raw materials as possible. I thoroughly enjoy such things, it gives me a rush to know that in any given month my wife and I produce as much waste as most people do in a couple days. I enjoy living like this so much so that I liken it to the red sox/ Yankees rivalry. I use the knowledge I’ve gained over the past ten or so years I’ve been living like this and use it to recruit people in a fairly cordial way. Try and convince a 67 year old retiree (my father) that not using plastic wrap, or using this fandangled thing people call a light bulb has not only positive health, but environmental result. If I believed that what I was doing had no purpose, no impact, no meaning…then we’d all be in a world of trouble. I understand your…I don’t want to say negativity…your pessimistic outlook, but what good will it do to think of such things?

I'm a 44-year-old small-town housewife. So far I've:

• talked my husband into selling our minivan and using the proceeds to pay down our credit cards (he drives a diesel VW Beetle for his commute)
  
• talked my husband into selling the older of our computers and the two of us sharing the Mac Mini
  
• talked my husband into buying a high-efficiency EPA-certified woodstove
  
• joined our local CSA
  
• canned and frozen a decent amount of produce this summer
  
• learned, along with my family, to eat lots of weird seasonal produce, because it's in our CSA allotment and we paid for it and we don't want it to go to waste
  
• switched to cloth from disposable sanitary napkins
  
• made a habit of sending my son's lunches to school in re-usable packaging
  
• expanded our garden every year, and each year more of it is edible and less ornamental
  
• started to try to grow grains as well as vegetables
  
• bought myself some chickens this spring
  
• switched to buying local eggs from a farm where the chickens spend their waking hours outdoors (until mine start laying)
  
• set our thermostat to 45 degrees during the day as I plan to get most of our heat from the new woodstove
  
• been drying our laundry outdoors or on a drying rack in the basement ever since our dryer died a couple of years back (I actively dissuade my husband from buying a new one every time the subject comes up)
  
• stopped buying myself clothes except for the occasional new underthings or socks, as I realized that I have so many clothes already that I might never need new clothes again
  
• entered negotiations with a bunch of my friends and with a farmer we know about raising a steer for us in her pasture, with all of us dividing up the meat and the cost of raising and slaughtering

Although it is great and inspiring to read all of these comments on how people are changing their personal habits to help the environmental cause, sadly I feel that it will take some form of environmental disaster before people open their eyes to the problem and quit making light of it.

Ben,

Wow! Thank you for your response. If I may, you raise several very interesting points worth following up on.
First: Your deep commitment to living a life in balance with what the planet is capable of providing is truly impressive. I know not everyone is able to go there yet, or willing, or capable, but your actions and forethought make me think about the concept of sacrifice. In a culture that is often fed media messages about the importance of individual gain, talking about sacrifice can be complicated, but very important. I think there are many ways to think about sacrifice, many of them through social action related to sustainability.

What really impresses me about what you have done in your life is the way you have completely explored your very way of being, and have mapped out a way foreword that puts your money where you mouth is. Given that most scientist suggest that current Western rates of resource consumption would require a full 5 or 6 more planet Earth’s to fuel (where everyone to live like we do), we appear to increasingly have the choice of either: a) running out of resources in the foreseeable future; or b) reducing our consumption by 5/6. These are two tough choices to be sure, but choices that will not go away, no matter how much we may like to believe otherwise.

The way you have truly reduced your footprint appears to be in the fore of what all our children may need to do. Not easy. Could you talk more about the sacrifices that go into the life you lead, perhaps in comparison to the life you might have led before? What is the daily quality of your life like? Is it harder, easier? Are you happier, or miserable? Do you have more free time or less? I would be curious to learn from you experience. What’s it like being you?

Two: You also mention your friends. In doing so your raise another really important factor in social change: the support and connection we have to community. We are often told that we a re a society of individuals, and yet our daily lives flow from the work and sacrifice of others. For example, every time one takes a drink of water from the kitchen sink (unless he/she has their own well), he or she is relying on the work of hundreds of people. The people who put the pipes in the ground, the people at the water board who help regulate its quality, the town council that sets up monitoring and equitable use of water, taxpayers who provide fund to keep the system in working order. Has community, friendship, the support of others played a role in helping you pursue your goal?

Thank you so very much for sharing of your life with me. Reading what you are doing has meant a great deal to me. I can’t wait to hear from others.

Alan

All that is great. Composting is also very easy, fulfilling and once the habit is created you feel really wierd about throwing veg matter in the trash (every now and then people forget), I cut cereal boxes up and turn them inside out to send packages, same with paper bags, and I was using a kitchen towel rather than Paper towels to cook burritos etc in microwave at work, then I found some cute ones at itskitch they have camels on them and the kids think they are cool. when we do end up buying small drinks we always rinse out the bottles and use them for taking cold water to work and school, really simple to just look around and see what can be reused or converted, like cutting up old clothes and using them for cleaning cloths, all that old world mentality is good for the new world too. Quilting, cooking a big meal and saving laftovers, speaking of which, all those containers that yogurt and humus come in, I use them as tupperware, and hey if they don't make it back from school, at least it got a second or third use, some that I have have been used 30+ times, easy peasy.
Nanse

Jesse,
Thank you so VERY much for your thoughts! I think ALL OF US can resonate with what you say when you wrote: “i was disappointed when you asked readers for answers - i thought you were going to TELL me how our actions/words can actually DO something. it feels to me that no matter what we do, it will somehow be crushed or hidden or otherwise nullified by the machine.”
It is a very strange situation we find ourselves in, yes? So much that is clearly wrong, out of kilter, and yet it seems none of us is standing up, risking, speaking out, to affect change. And yes, it does certainly seem that no matter what we do somebody, some group, some official, some corporation, takes the time to (as you say) crush our wondering minds, our opposition. You and I both, it seems have spent many hours thinking about this predicament.
Perhaps what you say is true. Things still are too easy, life is more or less (for us) good, so dramatic change, or a willingness to go up against the goliath that oppress us, is not as enticing as a couple of cold ones, or a move to Alaska.
But I also see great hope in what you say in perhaps a way you do not. You, like many other people I have met, say something similar. You were hoping I was going to give you some wisdom as to what to do. The fact that you are looking for this “thing” this “action” to me says you, and many many people like you, are ready to change, all that is required is leadership and a plan. Let’s remember what people, you and I and your neighbor are truly capable off when pressed. Humans are amazing creatures and can move mountains when they put heart and mind behind their actions.
But let’s not beat around the bush. A question for you, and others who read this…what is that power, that thing which prevents us, or, again, as you write, crushes us? Do others have this sense of pointlessness? Can you give us more voice behind what this is for you? What does this mean, feel like, look like?
Keep the spirit my freind, together we make it happen.
Alan

Azhura

I am so very glad you bring this up. The things that need to happen to build our sustainable world are not a matter of restrictive environmental principles, but fundamentally require the valuation of life as a whole. What is needed, as I think I was hinting towards, is a rebuilding of our systems as a whole.

Tell us more about your work. What are the challenges, the rewards? Help us understand what you do, I think you experience is very valuable to this conversation.

Alan

Anne,

It would be really cool to have your driving diary online. You are running and interesting experiment.

Alan

Joe,

Amen brother! In a different way you are as much an inspiration as Ben. You remind me of a famous saying by E.B. White,. who said each day he awoke, he awoke to equal and sometimes contradictory postions. ON the one hand he was motivated to save humanity, on the other, to savor it. We are an amazing species nto only becasue of our seemingly infinite ability to invent and overcome, but also for the amazing beuaty we create. As an artist myself I often think the greatest thing we can do is to bring more beauty ot the world. The way you speek of you life, the challegnes you set out for yourself, and others, and you beleife that what you do means a great deal is also very inspiringt to me.

Thanks for sharing.

Alan

Joe,

Amen brother! In a different way you are as much an inspiration as Ben. You remind me of a famous saying by E.B. White, who said each day he awoke, he awoke to equal and sometimes contradictory positions. ON the one hand he was motivated to save humanity, on the other, to savor it. We are an amazing species not only because of our seemingly infinite ability to invent and overcome, but also for the amazing beauty we create. As an artist myself I often think the greatest thing we can do is to bring more beauty to the world. The way you speak of you life, the challenges you set out for yourself, and others, and you belief that what you do means a great deal is also very inspiring to me.

Alan

Thanks for sharing.

Alan

I don't recycle as a habit, I eat red meat often, and have never converted to different lightbulbs nor low-flow showerheads. Who says I'm wrong? I am certainly more Green than anyone reading this who drives a car.

I am taking the ISO 14001 approach in both my personal life and on the job as an Environmental Specialist. Unfortunately, a lot of YOU folks have no idea what I am even talking about, and this is very sad to me, because I know it works.

Recommendation: Establish goals and objectives, that are measurable, and that you review periodically.

My most significant impact on the environment was my contribution to global warming by driving a car. When you consider life cycle management, and cradle to grave, here is why:

- Think about all the people who squander resources associated with that car. Some of them are:

1. All the resources required by the auto manufacturer (salesmen, advertisers, equipment operators, mechanics, etc).
2. All the resources required to mine and refine the raw materials, such as steel, copper, and etc.
3. All the resources it takes to drill, extract, pipe, refine, transport, and store petroleum for fuel, lubrication, and plastic.
4. All of the resources required by the banks, insurance companies, and state licensing departments.

I started riding a bicycle, and will never buy a car again. Look at the list above, and just think about all the resources I am saving by not buying a car. It is awesome!!! What are your significant Impacts on the environment?

oh yes, the internet in particular has been an important tool in making me become more 'green'.
- it is a good way to spread little but useful 'reduce, reuse..' how-to ideas.
- being a not very persuasive individual, i often turn to forums/ blogs for materials to send to my friends that will hopefully inspire them to become more conscious of their actions.
- before purchasing anything, it's a fast way to get opinions on what is really green, and what is what i call fake green, e.g. products with 'green' labels on but actually just using it as a way to promote consumption in a new market without doing anything meaningful to help the environment....
in short, information grazing is not that bad! people do digest it too.

Alan,
You have hit on a hot topic for me. I am a strawbale builder in Buffalo, NY, and I am striving to build in the city. I do strawbale building for several reasons, most of them environmental, and consider my work my contribution the cause. As I work to influence the public and convince them to build this way, I find it important to be aware of all the different reasons people might build this way. If I wait only for pure treehugggers to hire me my work will hardly influence the wider realm.

Though I am constantly striving to learn more about environmental issues, economics, building science and energy, I find that the conversations I have with average Joe's have the most potential for causing concrete change. as they make decisions based on their practical needs.

I'm not consistent with my life style and , for the most part, that reduces my " holier than thou" attitude" and helps me relate to more people. So, my work is where I put sustainable ideas into action regularly, and while I am always striving to improve my personal lifestyle, I don't let my inconsistency get me down.

Thank you for this post. I too wonder what all the words mean sometimes. So many speeches saying "We need to X, and we need to Y" but never any concrete mention of how to do it, and a plan to put it in action.

For my part, the "grazing" of articles has led to minor changes over the years which have culminated so far in a decrease in my family's impact/footprint. All these changes came about one by one to the point where I seem to be a bit of an eco-warrior. Only I seem to know how far I haven't yet taken things. The list of "to do's" to get me to a place where I feel comfortable with my impact is long, but having been able to incorporate so many differences into habits gives me confidence that I will be able to cross those to-do's off the list before long.

So far, I've switched to Bullfrog power (electricity from the grid, but derived from sun/wind/low-impact hydro), acquired an Xtracycle (cargo capability on a bike) which I try to ride as much as possible. I'm composting, and composting more and more diverse types of materials as I learn more. The temp of the house is kept low in the winter and we wear sweaters and slippers to keep warm. No air conditioning in summer, fans in the windows instead. Changed up all the light bulbs of course. Clothes line outside to hang dry. I'm making a conscious effort to avoid excess packaging in anything I buy. Occasionally baking my own bread. Sewed a bunch of bags to avoid the plastic bags from the store. Push mower for the grass/weeds. No chemicals for the lawn or garden. Cascading rain barrels to collect water from the roof for the gardens. Planted several trees in the yard. Printing business materials on recycled paper, when printing is necessary. Attempting to grow some veggies. I use a diva cup and homemade pantiliners during that time of the month (amazing how much cheaper it is and how much garbage it reduces). Buying more and more organic every day. Buying local whenever possible, avoiding certain things completely because they aren't a local kind of thing. Cleaning products now all "green", same with soap/shampoo/creams etc. "If it's yellow let it mellow..." philosophy. Voting green. Teaching my son about all of the things we are doing and why. Not having any more kids!

Some of those are works in progress, but I am happy as long as they do continue to progress.

In the works: Replacing windows, insulating etc. Electric car, can't wait for those to be available. Avoiding buying new whenever possible (www.storyofstuff.com got me started on this mission). Gently spreading the word about renewable energy available via the grid. Figuring out a way to heat my house without using any fossil fuels. Grey water recycling. Replacing old clothes washer and toilet with high efficiency versions. Building a chicken coop in the backyard and acquiring a few hens for eggs and bug control. The list goes on.

As my family sees the changes I make, I see them following suit in many cases. Once you see someone else implementing these "green" things in their lives, and seeing it is quite doable, many people will go ahead and do it. It makes you feel good, so why not!

Again, thank you for this post! I love hearing about ACTION rather than just words.

This post is a breath of fresh air on Treehugger. There comes a time when everyone really needs to question what they are doing. I have been making large sacrifices to be more environmentally conscious, ie. taking mass transportation, wasting less. But, I am as guilty as many others are, of taking the convenient way out sometimes at the expense of the ecosystem.

So, to answer the question posed in this post; I do change my actions based on what I read online? Yes! I started "grazing" heavily about 1-2 years ago and since then my life has changed for the better. My commute has doubled, but I use half as much fuel through use of mass transit, a more efficient car and my bike.

This is a great post, and you make a lot of great points. It's also hard to be positive about stuff like this, when you don't really get a lot of feedback compared to the number of people who read Treehugger articles. Basically, I try to lead by example, both at work and at home. My goal, honestly, is to keep the lifestyle I'm accustomed to, but to change how I do it - in this way, I can teach other people that they can be green without making enormous life altering sacrifices. Now of course, I'm not saying that you can become more green without making ANY sacrifices, sometimes you have to. But, I feel that if you can get your foot in the door by showing people easy lifestyle changes, they'll start to come around and want to make more substantial changes in the future. Maybe I'm wrong, but I like to think positively about human potential, or I'll start to cry :).

Also, who says Treehuggers don't buy SUVs?...just sayin'.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/treehugger_buys.php