Earth Life

Instead of Earth Day, or the even more PC Earth Week, why don't we just change our habits permanently? Like a dieter who yo-yos back and forth between skinny and fat, hopping on each new fad diet as it comes along, we talk about environmentalism as if one day or week could possibly have an impact. We can't go on a fad diet, we need real change and it needs to become permanent. Biofuels are a fad diet. Hybrid cars are a fad diet. Ethanol is a fad diet. Biodiesel cars are a fad diet. Shopping for 'green' products is a fad diet. We don't need an Earth Day. We need an Earth Life.

Let's face it, we can't 'conserve oil', compost, recycle or 'buy green' our way out of this crisis. The only solution is a massive restructing of our society, which is coming, whether we like it or not. It is coming because the end of cheap energy is here. Shipping our cheap food over massive distances, cheap air travel, cheap commuting in a car, cheap 3000 sq foot house heating bills, all of that is over. $4 a gallon gas is 2 months away according to the latest predictions.
Everything is going to change as oil gets more expensive, which in my mind, is a very Good Thing. People aren't going to change their habits unless they HAVE to. And believe me, we are all about to have to.
There is no substitute for oil that is going to allow us to keep living the way we have been. There just isn't. The only solution is to use less energy because to do otherwise is about to become prohibitively expensive.

I recently read an article somewhere about how companies have convinced us that the way to save the environment is to save our own families by buying certain products, etc. For example, people buy water from a water company because our tap water is 'unsafe'. Or they buy organic food. Or they buy an organic mattress. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these things, in fact I support it, it does smack of saving yourself and saying screw it to everyone else. If water isn't safe to drink, we need to do something about it, not just buy bottled water. Its kind of like the yuppification of environmentalism. Instead of a movement, we just have another offshoot of consumer culture. I really think a lot of people have bought into this idea that you can 'help' the earth by 'going green'. I've said it before and i'll say it again, every time you buy ANYTHING you hurt the planet. Not consuming is the only solution. You don't help the earth when you buy an organic cotton shirt, a Prius, a box of organic crackers, an energy star diswasher, or anything else. You only hurt the earth less than the standard counterpart. Consuming is not the answer. It has never been. Not buying is the only solution...we need to strive for that ideal, as hard as it may be.

I was teaching my juvenile delinquent students at the night school the other night, and I decided since it was Earth Day that I would focus on environmental issues. We were talking about carbon footprint and how to reduce it, and I showed them how to calculate it. It occurred to me then, as it often does, how incredibly horrible our family is doing at the whole car thing. The weather this spring has been terrible and I've been so not wanting to ride my bike or walk anywhere long distance. We are doing great on every other front, with the exception maybe of food packaging, which I still find practically impossible to reduce further, except car driving. And if you want to feel REALLY depressed about our future, try talking to some high school students. So many of these kids, the vast majority, are so self-absorbed, instant-gratification junkies that they don't care at all about their impact on the planet. They are obsessed with material things. I know some of it is just their age, but I can't help but think that a LOT of it is how we are raising our kids: in front of the TV, exposed to commercialism everywhere, 5000 advertisements a year, video games, IPods, cell phones, fast food, instant EVERYTHING. They get what they want when they want it. They never have to delay their immediate desires. It's sad. Even the poorest kids I work with have an IPod and a cell phone and eat junk food at almost every meal.

Our plans for the near future involve moving to a smaller town. I sincerely hope that this reduces our need to drive. Not that portland is so big, or doesn't have great mass transit, but it is just big ENOUGH that riding your bike everywhere is a pretty big challenge. Riding the bus and transferring all over the place with 2 kids is a similarly daunting challenge. I think my "Earth Life" challenge is going to have to include a limit on mileage...we are going to have to set a limit, such as 50 miles per week in a car, and stick to it. So if we want to drive to salem, we pretty much just used up our whole week's rations in one go. If we want to drive around town, we need to keep track of it and stay below it. Our family has done a lot of work, but giving up or reducing our car use has pretty much....well, it's just not happening. Now if gas is $5 a gallon, i'm pretty sure i'll be thinking differently...

Oh, and we bought a new laptop. GOD! i'm such a hypocrit! we are all hypocrits. How do we live in this society and not trash the planet? Sometimes it feels like the most impossible task on earth. I'm sure the parts to make this laptop were mined by 12 year olds in South Africa.

So...how's that for an uplifting Earth Day message? I just can't stand it when people's solution for earth day is to buy an organic cotton earth day t-shirt. Yeah, that's gonna save us all.

Simple ways to make a difference

So last week was bike to work week. Maybe you missed it. That's ok, because you can still bike to work any day. I'm pleased to say that yesterday I biked over to a friend's house and then to the bar, whereas the week before I had driven. It didn't occur to me to bike, even though it was only like 3 miles the whole night . It just goes to show that we have to consciously make an effort to change these habits.

You can calculate your carbon impact here. The difference between driving 5000 miles per year and 8000 miles per year is a LOT. Our family apparently has a "much smaller impact" than the average. We still have an impact, of course. And find out about simple ways to save carbon emissions here, like unplugging devices when not in use. They use energy, even when they aren't on. Did you know that? I am going to turn my computer off at the power strip when not in use, unplug the coffee pot, microwave, and other things that I can unplug without moving a large piece of furniture. You can go one step further and become carbon neutral by offsetting your use.

One thing that is really awesome is CSAs: Community Supported Agriculture. This means you "subscribe" to a farm by giving your money directly to a local farmer, usually an organic, sustainable farm. Then you share in the risks, and the bumper crops, of that farm. It's a very awesome thing. We have done it for about 5 years. We aren't doing it this year because we are trying to grow most of our own produce. And I want to be able to choose our food at the farmer's market, instead of having to take what the farm is growing. But here is a list of Portland-area CSAs. We have personally done the 47th ave Farm and Pumpkin Ridge Gardens, and they are both great. If you don't live in Oregon, you can probably find a CSA near you.

Our first moral dilemma in terms of our goals comes this week because we have pledged to not buy anything new. Well, we have also pledged to make a very, very small amount of garbage. We currently use a disposable pull-up on Elsie at night because she wets a lot when she sleeps (even though she has been potty trained for a long time). I know that sounds weird, that a family with these goals would use a disposable diaper, but we have been through a lot with her (leaking cloth diapers, really smelly, morning battles over taking it off and washing the bum, etc) it was just getting to be too much. After 3 years of cloth diapering, we figured one disposable a day wasn't a big deal. Well, it still makes a pretty large amount of waste. Plus, we are obviously buying the pull-ups "new". Then they get thrown away. I have looked for a pull-up cloth nighttime diaper used, but they aren't as readily available as regular diapers. So i think we will have to buy them new. They are called Happy Heiny's (yes, all cloth diapers have stupid names having to do with butt). They are made by work-at-home-moms. I'm hoping we can just get by with two (wash them each morning, so its ready to go the next day).

Oh, and Elsie has decided after seeing them on two of her friends, that she wants flip-flops. Uhhh...i wonder if they have any at Goodwill right now? She wears size 8 or 9, if anybody out there has some laying around :)

Change in mindset

I think for us, the biggest challenge is going to be the car thing. Its so easy to be reliant on the convenience of a car. I am always secretly hoping that gas will go up and up and up--over $5 a gallon, because it will force myself and others to change this habit. I think the way I am going to have to tackle this is to pretend, in most cases, that we don't have a car. Sadly we have two, although one of them may die at any moment and won't get replaced.

If I can get myself to pretend that we don't have a car, maybe I can get so used to not having one that when we do make the switch, it won't be a big deal.

I've noticed that flexcar now has a car on 52nd and division, which is a short bus ride from our house. We'd have to take our carseats on the bus, which would be a hideous hassle, but if we are only doing this once or twice a month, it wouldn't be that bad.

Sadly, it costs an insane amount of money to take a greyhound or train to salem, which is another time we drive (to visit family). So its not really feasible.

I just wanted to post these great links about ideas to reduce waste. We are planning on visiting the Wednesday farmer's market at People's Food Co-Op They also have square dancing on Wednesday evenings, so we can check that out as well. Elsie's music teacher's band Government-Issue Orchestra plays there sometimes.

Anyway, the reduce waste thing

Also, the how to stop junk mail thing. As you can see, they make it hard for you. But I got FIVE, yes count them FIVE credit card offers in one day last week. This has got to stop. So I think I will order little pre-paid postcards from the post office and send them to these addresses. Hopefully I can curtail most, if not all, the junk mail we get.
I did this for myself and Jay. I get the credit card offers, he gets the student loan consolidation offers. Often times we get about 10 of these a week. Its stupid. I also called this 1-888-5OptOut to stop pre-screened credit and insurance offers.

Here is a very cool list of where to buy recycled items and recycled gift ideas

Metro may have its problems, but you have to admit it's pretty cool.