Blogger, the service I use to create this blog, encouraged its members to post about environmental matters on Monday. I missed it, but figure that better late than never. So here goes.
How green are you? Consumer Consequences, an interactive web site sponsored by American Public Media, has a quiz that you can use to find out how many Earths we would need if everyone lived like you. Benjamin and I consciously try to have as little an impact as is possible and practical - buying as much local food as possible, recycling, not buying disposable products - but due to the general American way of life, even we would require 2 Earths. This is appalling to me. Some of it we just can't do anything about right now, because we don't have enough money to completely change, and we are not given options by the people running our utilities, cities, car manufacturers... If we all get involved and tell these people that we are not happy with our choices, maybe we could make a difference. Nothing will happen if we don't speak up and act out. To quote Wayne Gretzky, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
Of course, one of the problems with getting more people interested in saving the environment is that there are so many of them just trying to survive. It is awfully hard to worry about how sustainable your food is when you can barely afford any to begin with. Thomas Friedman's column in the New York Times today points out someone who is trying to tackle both problems at once. I hope more programs like this can be put together, but it is going to take action at the grass roots level, not the government level, by the people who are directly affected. Get involved!
3 comments:
We all need to start. Staring to conserve helps. Eventually, we will be mandated to do it if we haven't...the brave new world. To keep our freedoms we need to be proactive in ALL aspects of society. Pick the area you are gifted in and begin.
I'm in the same boat -- I did the Consumer Consequences, thinking that since I commute to work on a bike and buy mostly locally produced produce that I'd be all earth friendly, but I came out at 2 earths as well. While that's much better than the average American, it's still disturbing, especially for someone who thinks of themselves as very consciences. What killed my score was flying to see my family. Even one or two transcontinental flights were enough to over-extend my alloted resources. That and drinking coffee, which, no matter how environmentally friendly, travels thousands of miles to get to me.
Sigh. I like visiting my family. And coffee.
I tried to play this game at home. Howeverm since I have an older computer (hope that is worth points) and a telephone dialup modem, it was impossible to do. I'll try tomorrow at work.
It is really important to recycle as much as you can. In Bellevue, Washington, we are well set up for recycling paper, glass and cans. I am very happy that they made it so easy for us to do. It just takes time to get more people involved.
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