I spent a couple of hours yesterday watching “Live Earth” being generally uplifted by the music but generally disappointed by the musicians trying to show and talk about how their lives had changed. (How many water bottles did you count?) Nonetheless, I was moved to once again revisit my own footprint on this world this weekend and answer some tough questions about the future from my kids not just because of the concerts but because of two really interesting interviews I watched in the lead up.
The first was on Thursday night on CNBC with Al Gore. I’ve written here before that I’ve always liked Gore; in fact I did some volunteering for his presidential campaign way back in 1988, and I’ve admired most of his politics for a long time. I think the world would be a much different place had 2000 not happened, and, on a comparatively minor note, I think more people would be connected to broadband at this point if he had become president. But, enough of that. What I found compelling on Thursday was the obvious passion he has for this cause. He has said repeatedly that he doesn’t see himself running for president, that he thinks he can make more of an impact with what he’s doing (which in and of itself says something about the dreary state of governance in this country.) And I hope he sticks to that, because he is right. And I loved the way he framed the fight in terms of how future generations would see this moment. Hopefully they’ll ask “How did they find the will to change?” rather than “What the heck were they thinking?” (Those are not verbatim, btw.)
The other interview I saw was Friday night when Bill Moyers had scientist and author E.O. Wilson on to speak about the climate change crisis and the Encyclopedia of Life, which, if you haven’t checked it out yet, is an amazing, collaborative undertaking that is a best practice for the Web we know and love. I really urge you to watch the video as, in it, Wilson makes his own passionate case for action, noting that if we don’t make change in the next 10 years, over half of the mammal species currently alive will be extinct. His new book The Creation: An Appeal fo Save Life on Earth was written with a Southern Baptist preacher in mind, he says, in an attempt to bridge the schism between science and religion on the issue. (Read the summaries on the Amazon site for an overview.)
Anyway, while I know a lot of people will debate the urgency of all of this, I’m past the point of trying to understand why we wouldn’t do better by the environment just for the simple reason that it’s the right thing to do. And while I can’t always stop people from idling their cars and wasting water, (though I try) I can do that for myself. My amazing wife Wendy wrote a book about the things we can do to change our footprint, btw, and we’ve been trying for some time now to soften our impact. And so, not in any way to claim some moral superiority on the issue or to raise myself up as a poster child (because I am in no way even close to perfect) I just want to take a moment to document (once again) the steps we are trying to take:
- We buy organic, and preferably locally grown foods. (That last part is the key.)
- We don’t eat meat, chicken and certain kinds of fish due to environmental effects the production of those items cause.
- We buy things that come in recyclable packaging or no packaging at all.
- We recycle everything we can. (See this site.)
- We bring cloth or plastic IKEA bags to the grocery store for reuse (and we get 3 cents a bag back!)
- We give away rather than throw away.
- We use Freecycle
- We ask for no bag when we don’t absolutely need one.
- We reuse plastic bags (of which this country throws away 15 millions a day.)
- We have plastic coffee and water cups…my wife insists on NO PLASTIC BOTTLES (of which this country throws away 2.5 million every hour.)
- We buy bathroom tissue made from recyled products.
- We buy carbon offsets for all of the plane travel and road travel we do.
- We buy biodegradable dish and clothes washing soap.
- We buy used clothes for ourselves and our kids.
- We turn our thermostat down to 60 at night.
- We use flourscent light bulbs.
- We replaced our gas heater with a wood pellet stoves.
- We replaced many of our old appliances with energy saving, efficient ones.
- We replaced our old toilets with water saving ones, but
- We still flush every other time (unless of course…)
- We make sure our faucets don’t leak.
- We trap the cold water that starts every shower in containers for use elsewhere (plants, dishes, etc.)
- We turn off every light when not in use.
- We only buy stuff that we really NEED (82% of the time, at least.)
- We compost kitchen scraps.
- We reuse plastic utensils.
- We reuse aluminum foil, and we try not to use plastic wrap.
- We are involved in political campaigns.
- We sign petitions.
- We volunteer at soup kitchens and such, though not as much as we’d like to.
- We’re still saving to buy a Prius.
This year, Wendy and I really want to try the 100-mile diet, though it will be tough. But buying locally produced food is one of the best things we can do to lower carbon emissions. (If you want to read a great book on the subject, try Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, and then give it to someone else to read.)
Anyway, I hope that’s making a difference. Try explaining to a seven year old why the Earth as we know it may be gone in his lifetime and you get pretty motivated…
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Interesting post. And good luck on the 100 mile diet.
I, too, liked Al Gore and voted for him. But, I do think that maybe the worst thing that the global warming movement could have done was to make him the spokesperson. Why? It instantly made global warming a political issue. Republicans (not all, of course, but MOST) will immediately reject anything he has to say because of his obvious political affiliation. I hear it time after time. What he says gets rejected offhand simply because he’s a Democrat.
What do you think?
Jim, there is some truth to the idea that people will reject it just because Gore said it, but I think climate change was a political issue long before he became the primary voice. There are some evangelical voices calling for protecting the environment, and ultimately I think those voices will be more important to moderate evangelicals than rejecting Gore’s ideas.
Will, I hope you’ll forgive me for doing a little plug for two sites I think may be helpful for people who are looking for small ways to start helping the environment.
1. Care2, especially the Daily Action Site. This is an online community of 6 million members working to help the environment, with lots of resources and discussions. The Daily Action is a recommendation for a small thing you can do each day, usually in just a few minutes. For anyone who feels that Will’s list is too much for them (and if you’re starting out, it may be), this is a place to start.
http://www.care2.com/dailyaction/homepage.html
2. Ideal Bite has a daily tips newsletter, but it’s focused on products as much as tips. If you have wondered about what you could buy instead of plastic silverware, check out the reviews for biodegradable corn-based plastic or bamboo options. It’s a fun little newsletter (too bad they don’t have RSS for the daily tips though).
http://www.idealbite.com/
Sorry for the bit of marketing, but I do want people to know that you can start with some of these small actions and still make a difference. You don’t have to start from nothing and then do everything on this list from Day 1–you build up to changing your lifestyle like this.
Have you read Gore’s latest book “The Assault on Reason”? There’s some interesting parallels between the transformation Gore is hoping to see in politics and the one we’re hoping to see in education.
Here’s what he says close to end of his book (pg 260):
“In fact, the Internet is perhaps the greatest source of hope for reestablishing an open communications environment in which the conversation of democracy can flourish. It has extremely low entry barriers for individuals. The ideas that individuals contribute are dealt with, in the main, according to the rules of a meritocracy of ideas. It is the most interactive medium in history and the one with the greatest potential for connecting individuals to one another and to a universe of knowledge.
“An important distinction to make is that the Internet is not just another platform for disseminating the truth. It’s a platform for pursuing the truth, and the decentralized creation and distribution of ideas, in the same way that markets are a decentralized mechanism for the creation and distribution of goods and services. It’s a platform, in other words, for reason.”
He goes on to specifically mention the importance of blogs, wikis and social networks.
[just a note – the URL for the “Green Team” site in your fourth bullet point needs to end with “html” and not just “htm” – so it’s http://www.thegreenteam.org/facts-tips.html]
I’ve just started reading Daniel H. Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind. He writes about the abundance of the American society, “When we can’t store our many things, we just throw them away. As business writer Polly LaBarre notes, “The United States spend more on trash bags than ninety other countries spend on everything. In other words, the receptacles of our waste cost more than all of the goods consumed by nearly half the world’s nations”” Which makes following many of the items on your list something that just plain sense not just futuristic evangelism.
My son turned to me during the coverage of Live Earth and asked, “mum do you think the best way to get people to use less electricity is to put on a 22 hour concert and televise it?” Out of the mouth of babes!
One of the amazing facts I heard today was the number of plastic water bottles that have to be dealt with after use. Some restaurants are doing away using bottled water altogether. So, maybe my mother was right when she said to reuse those bottles.
I just finished watching the video, Diamond Teague/Bill Moyers. I am amazed that our elected lawmakers can ignore an area of DC that is just a few minutes away. These kids struggle to make a difference in their lives and the lives and environment of others. They are my heroes, not the senators and representatives that can’t come together and make decisions about war, economy or the environment.
My, you inspire ne! I see several things on your list that I could be doing better and some I can’t do because I don’t own or in which borough I live. But there are things I could do and I suspect this is true of all of us! Vive Vegan!
Inspiring indeed!
To Mrs. Durff and others: If you’re looking for a place to start visit http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change/take_action/7steps/climate-claymation-video-ein
With regards to your intended purchase of a Prius, I once read in the automotive section of a newspaper that it was actually far more effective from an environmental perspective to keep your current vehicle properly maintained than to buy a new vehicle, even a hybrid. The reason given for this was that the total energy and materials used to produce a new car was much higher than keeping an existing car working as efficiently as possible.
Having said that, I think it would be really cool to have a vehicle that was nearly silent when running. :^)
I’ve been playing a ping pong game in my head lately between Al Gore being the face of anti-global warming and George Bush being the face of anti-terrorism.
They are both in a similar position with respect to marketing their cause.
The next time a terrorist attack happens (and you know it will eventually) Bush can sit back and say, “See I told you so.” The media will flock to him for a response.
The next time a major irregular weather event happens (and you know it will eventually) Gore can sit back and say, “See I told you so.” The media will flock to him for a response.
The difference is in the motives/actions of the two. I think Bush messed up big time and I think Gore is doing everything right.
It would bother me if Gore did end up running, as much as I would like him to, because then it would mean he was doing all this for a political gain instead of out of the passion in his heart.
I think the campaign which Al Gore leads is very important for the world…but the funny thing about it is in my opinion not everything he tries to tell the people is the truth.
I saw an interview with him where he was asked what he personally does for this project. He said he just built about 30 solar cells on his house…so everybody who knows a little bit about photovoltaics cells knows that this is not the right way. You need so much energy (which comes from nuclear power or power made out of oil or sth like that) to build these photovoltaics cells that you will never gain with them again…so you put much more energy in it than you will get out of it…
So why should you do this…the right way would be to put solar cells on your house which heat the water because they are good for the environment but photovoltaics cells are not…So you really need to be careful what you believe and what you do not. I guess it is dangerous that people like Al Gore promote things that are not true…(in my opinion)…