Business Week and River Swimming
“Excess Disguised as Less” is an article by Akiko Bush on the same subject as my last blog entry - a seemingly unlikely subject for BusinessWeek, but it appears that the discussion of excessive consumerism is broadening. Incidentally, Akiko Bush is also the author of a book of essays about her experience swimming in American Rivers. Smart woman.
Dear environmentally conscious consumer:
Don’t get me wrong, I am impressed that more and more businesses are offering environmentally friendly products and love it. Recycled products of any kind, whether they are paper products, recycled glassware, fleece made from recycled plastic bottles, etc. are a great idea and certainly reduce our environmental footprint. It’s becoming hip to shop for eco-products and we’ve long passed the age when environmentalists were immediately recognizable by the way they dressed. Websites like www.treehugger.com are a constant source of information for new eco-friendly products. This is a great development and I get excited every time I read about it. I have been to the new cool eco-store in town. I have bought that bamboo shirt and love it. I happily recycle everything possible. But here’s the problem: Environmental sustainability cannot be achieved by simply recycling and using more environmentally-friendly raw materials for our consumer products. We cannot shop our way out of an ecological problem. By focusing solely on purchasing environmentally friendly products we are in danger of forgetting that anything we buy and consume requires large amounts of resources to produce, recycled or not. And most of those products are made in countries where environmental protection ranks dead last on the priority list. Instead we should remember that there were three “Rs” in the environmental mantra: reduce, reuse and finally recycle.
Reducing the amount of things we buy decreases the energy required to make them, the packaging that ends up in the landfill and the number of products that get sent there as well after the end of their useful life (and often before). By all means, this doesn’t mean that we should make do without the things we need or want. Not at all. Because to the rescue comes the second R: “reuse”. For those of us living in or near a big city, web sites like Craigslist gives us the opportunity to buy and sell used items we no longer need. Almost everything one could possibly want to have is available in used form on Craigslist or eBay, in second-hand stores, libraries, your friend’s closet, basement or book shelf, or a rental place (the things you can rent these days: cars, outdoor equipment, bicycles, kayaks … ). Trust me and try it. It’s great fun. Yes, it takes a bit more time to find exactly what you want, but doesn’t it take just as much time to shop for new things? Craigslist is almost as convenient as online shopping and in most cases you can pick up your item somewhere in your community the same day. And you just made another community member happy and richer rather than some corporation. If you have to buy new items, and sometimes that’s unavoidable, the key is to purchase high quality products and look for eco-friendly ingredients and responsible manufacturing processes. The neat thing is that you’ll be able to afford to do so, because you’re spending less money on those products you end up renting, borrowing or buying used, and you are able to sell a high quality product more easily when you no longer need it.
One more thing, a lot of people enjoy shopping. I have a pretty low tolerance for shopping, with the exception of food shopping at the farmers market and a weakness for book stores. Really, there are so many things I’d rather be doing. Many people also complain about wanting to simplify their lives. I highly recommend it. Cancel your subscription to Simple Living, stop shopping for anything but food and other essentials (ask yourself whether you really NEED to buy that extra pair of pants, piece of furniture, toy). Quit worrying about expensive gifts and take your friends out to see a play, go for a hike, or visit a museum instead. Chances are, they really don’t need any more trinkets either. Donate or sell items you don’t need. Not only will you help the environment by not buying unnecessary things or buying them used, you’ll also save money and reduce the clutter in your house.
Isn’t it interesting that one of the easiest ways to reduce our environmental footprint is also the way to more simplicity and serenity? It’s eminently liberating. Even more interesting is that our so-called advanced society really should take lessons from the way our grandparents lived, more simply, less focused on material things and more on the important things in life: family, friendships, civic engagement, and the enjoyment of food, nature and music. Leonardo da Vinci was right: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.
Sincerely,
Not a material girl
Things that shouldn’t be found in the Charles River
Along with hundreds of other volunteers I spent this morning picking up trash from the banks of the Charles River (a surprisingly hazardous undertaking, as I found out when my friend got attacked by an irritated Canada goose). In two hours I filled a large garbage bag covering a relatively small area that didn’t even seem all that dirty at first glance. Here are some of the things I picked up:
The most frequent items picked up, however, were:
Luckily, these are also some of the easiest items to avoid as a consumer by bringing your own coffee mug and your own shopping bags. Some establishments will even give you a discount for doing so (and they should, since every bag and every cup costs them money). But how to get the word out to those who can’t be bothered to think about this (particularly not before their first cup of coffee)?
Whatever happened to real food?
I’m mad. The US and Canada just approved the use of genetically modified yeast in wine production. As if it isn’t hard enough to avoid genetically modified corn, now I have to stick to European and organic wines. It is inconceivable to me that in a country where obesity, dieting and nutritional science make headlines every day, hardly anybody seems to be concerned about the quality of the food that people ingest and the integrity and safety of the food supply chain. I for my part would like my food to be grown and raised in ways proven successful for millennia as opposed to a way that’s driven by short-term commercial interests (pesticide manufacturers, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, factory farms, food (corn!) processing firms …). Instead of finding a new diet miracle drug, food or surgery, it seems to me that the simple solution would be for people to start eating real food again. Ya know, fruits and vegetables, rice and beans, and meat from animals that aren’t pumped full of meds because they’re being fed corn that they have no way of digesting without getting sick. Just a thought.
Living in New England it’s hard to get people to stop long enough to think about water conservation and water quality as a critical issues. There seems to be plenty of water here. But in reality, there isn’t an infinite amount of clean water and our rivers are still being polluted by combined sewer overflows, urban run-off and littering. Household chemicals, fertilizers, antibiotics and organic pollutants find their way into surface and ground waters and this problem needs to be addressed at several levels. Some pollution comes from industrial and agricultural sources, but a lot of it comes from individuals and the EPA lists many ways citizens can help protect our bodies of water from pollution.
On the conservation end we spent a lot of energy heating water so we can take hot showers, run our washing machines and dishwashers and in general use a lot more water than necessary. Because there’s no critical and immediate need for conservation, the “conserve water, drink beer” slogan sums up our efforts in minimizing water use. I am an offender in the worst way - while I only turn on the dishwasher when it’s full, never run the tap unnecessarily and wash most of my clothes in cold water (and generally consider my lifestyle environmentally friendly), I love long hot showers! Particularly after swim practice, when the hot water just feels so good and shower time is spent catching up on team gossip.
Other parts of the world aren’t this lucky and one doesn’t need to leave this country in order to realize that clean water is a precious commodity (just go to the Southwest). Anyway, the UN declared today, 3/22/07, World Water Day in an effort to draw attention to the increasing water scarcity on the planet.