So it’s earth day, that one day of the year when people pledge to get all green and wholesome.
I am not an environmentalist. I repeat. I am not an environmentalist. I am not a nature lover (though I don’t have a problem with people who are). I am not a hiker who loves the pristine views of rarely walked paths. I grew up surrounded by that shit. I grew up at 7000 feet above sea level near one of the deepest, purest, fresh water lakes in the world. I’ve climbed giant rocks and been chased by bears and dug out 12 feet of snow from our driveway. I prefer the city.
That said- my carbon foot print is tiny. It’s about one third the size of most Americans . Of course it’s still about 64% larger than most other people in the world.
But I think I can still sit on my high horse and be horribly condescending for one sec. First- go read this. It’s awesome. Why is it that so many of the things that can be done and that are being done to help the environment are women’s work? They have been talking about solar power
for decades, while we change our lightbulbs and skip the dryers and use crappy (admit it) “natural” (what this means is some mildly astringent smelling water and 10 times the elbow grease) cleaners cause ehwwww the scary chemicals.
And disposable diapers? The only people who can seriously recommend changing back to cloth diapers do not understand 1) that baby poop explodes without warning- you want a plastic shield between you and the baby’s ass) and 2) Cloth diapers means taking a shit filled diaper, rinsing it out in the toilet and then carrying around a bag (or bags) full of wet shitty fabric till you can get to a washer or diaper pail. If I had to use cloth diapers on the Kid’s ass (and I certainly got enough guilt about it) then I couldn’t have left my house before he was 3.
So with all my antipathy for an environmental movement that is bent on increasing my workload- how is it that my carbon footprint looks like it does?
Poverty. Poverty makes us buy less, reuse more. We don’t own a car. I walk to work and to the grocery store, drugstore and bank. I take the bus if it’s longer than that but that doesn’t even come to 200 miles a year. We recycle almost everything, though we don’t compost (I may just start a bucket if a friend of mine actually does turn my postage stamp back yard into a garden). We buy a lot of local produce because Washington happens to be a damn fine state for growing shit. But if it wasn’t, or if it’s the middle of January and I am simply dying for fruit- you can bet your sweet ass I’m getting blackberries from Mexico, if we can afford it.
And speaking of poverty and the environment- you all have heard that because so many crops in the US were replaced with biofuel stock that there is a shortage of rice, flour and oil in many states. Costco in California is rationing bags of rice. Next time I see a Jetta with a biodiesel logo on it, I’m leaving the owner a little note about how their desire to drive does not outweigh other people’s need to eat.
(It’s not that I do not understand the need for a massive change in how we get energy- it just happens that I am a lithium-ion plug in cars and csp solar energy kind of girl. Neither of those things requires valuable farm land to stop producing food)