Thursday, April 1, 2010
Monday, November 10, 2008
What is THE thing?
What is THE thing that I could do that would have the most beneficial impact on making our world a more sustainable, compassionate place?
A question I constantly ask, and have yet to answer. Does anyone have an answer to this question?
Part of my answer will be to continue asking the question. Ask those who think they have the answer. Who has the answers?
A question I constantly ask, and have yet to answer. Does anyone have an answer to this question?
Part of my answer will be to continue asking the question. Ask those who think they have the answer. Who has the answers?
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Head mightier than body
We've become too smart for our own good. I'm certainly not the first to make that observation, and won't be the last, but it recently occurred to me that humans are no longer suited to what we are best at. We became the dominant species by using our brains to create tools that elevated us to to top of the food chain, allowed us to adapt our living spaces to any environment, and promoted creative problem solving in regards to disease. Now that we dominate, we no longer need our large bodies, which break down regularly in a sedentary brain-dominated lifestyle.
I recently arrived home from 2 weeks of backpacking. Backpacking for me involves all elements of life that humans are adapted to pursuing: serious physical exertion, problem solving and navigation, rationing food and cooking, making shelter in the wilderness and social interaction in small tribe-like groups. I find great peace and serenity in nature, a place to clear my mind of the constant distractions of modern life, and get back to my roots.
Upon arriving home, I was driven from a train station to my house. The car isolated me from everything outside, everything natural. Music was playing fairly loudly on the stereo, filling my ears so that I did not try to listen to anything else. Moving at 30 mph or faster, my eyes took in many images, and my brain was highly stimulated, but the body was limp, lifeless, useless. It was amazing to me how easy we have made lives for ourselves. Going from carrying everything I need to live on my back, to being transported in a seated position with music playing to entertain me was a strange contrast. It was so easy. And that is why we continue to do it.
We have made lives easy for ourselves. We have to exert less physical energy to go through our daily lives than ever before in history. Even when we go out to buy food, we can usually do all of our shopping in 1 store. Our instinct to exert less energy (thereby saving it for times of need) has lead us to become a nation of fat, lazy, diseased thinkers, relying on our minds to make a living. Depressing.
I recently arrived home from 2 weeks of backpacking. Backpacking for me involves all elements of life that humans are adapted to pursuing: serious physical exertion, problem solving and navigation, rationing food and cooking, making shelter in the wilderness and social interaction in small tribe-like groups. I find great peace and serenity in nature, a place to clear my mind of the constant distractions of modern life, and get back to my roots.
Upon arriving home, I was driven from a train station to my house. The car isolated me from everything outside, everything natural. Music was playing fairly loudly on the stereo, filling my ears so that I did not try to listen to anything else. Moving at 30 mph or faster, my eyes took in many images, and my brain was highly stimulated, but the body was limp, lifeless, useless. It was amazing to me how easy we have made lives for ourselves. Going from carrying everything I need to live on my back, to being transported in a seated position with music playing to entertain me was a strange contrast. It was so easy. And that is why we continue to do it.
We have made lives easy for ourselves. We have to exert less physical energy to go through our daily lives than ever before in history. Even when we go out to buy food, we can usually do all of our shopping in 1 store. Our instinct to exert less energy (thereby saving it for times of need) has lead us to become a nation of fat, lazy, diseased thinkers, relying on our minds to make a living. Depressing.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Buying more stuff?
The green revolution is upon us. It is the fad, the political buzz, and the true concern of our times. I struggle with frustration at the contradictions that occur within this movement, and I strive to clarify the principles that will actually help the earth and its future inhabitants (including humans). One of the largest errors that I see when people are trying to make the move to green is that they immediately go out and buy new, “green” products.
Any new product, unless it is extracted, processed, manufactured, transported and sold with entirely renewable energy, is still putting more greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere and should not be bought just because it is green. This does not help the environment.
I hope that before everyone and their grandma drops what they are doing to go out and buy the latest green products, they think about the repercussions first.
No matter how green, organic, sustainable and animal friendly your new organic cotton pants are, they were still most likely grown in fields of cotton that were planted and harvested by giant diesel tractors, shipped in giant diesel trucks to factories that processed, weaved and dyed them using lots of non-renewable energy, then shipped again to a store that doesn’t use renewable energy for its operations to sell them to you. And you probably drove to the store to get them, maybe in a hybrid car, which is slightly less bad than a regular car. The overall “green-ness” of those pants is only slightly higher than the regular pants you’ve always bought. Not to say that if you really need a new pair of pants, you should buy pesticide-laden cotton (cotton is the most highly sprayed crop in the world, using around 16% of all pesticides worldwide). On the contrary, a new pair of organic cotton pants is better for the environment than a new pair of poison cotton pants, but not so much so that you should abandon your old pants.
Actually, the greenest thing you could do is patch your old pants, using your own hands to sew the patch, and keep right on wearing them until they decompose off of your body. But that might not fly in some fashion circles.
Another example:
Green Build, the largest green building conference in the nation (Boston this November 19-21), has as one of its stated goals:
“Build 1 million green homes”
Now this may sound great to those who are clamoring for green jobs and the use of green materials, but what it says to me is “use energy and resources enough to build another MILLION homes!”
Of course the argument exists that we would be building another million homes anyway, but I can’t help thinking that the enthusiasm for building green homes (and other buildings) sometimes overshadows the fact that to produce green materials and turn them into usable buildings STILL takes TONS of fossil fuels. Transportation, manufacturing, materials sourcing and the construction methods themselves all have a long way to go before they could be considered “good” for anyone. They may be less-bad, but that doesn’t make them good! Even if manufacturing these 1 million green homes produces ½ of the carbon emissions of traditional homes, that means that we are allowing and accepting the production of tons more carbon emissions!
When considering options for the future of our nation’s energy, many people are quick to jump to solar energy and wind energy. While I agree that these options would be less damaging to the environment in the long run than continuing to produce power with coal or nuclear power plants, we must still consider their impacts.
It still takes TONS of energy to manufacture the windmills and solar panels that we are considering installing. Many solar panels are still manufactured using cadmium telluride, a toxic material that, unless completely recycled at the end of its life cycle, will end up in our environment just like the myriad of toxins that are currently improperly disposed of every day. I do believe that solar energy as well as wind energy are part of the answer to our healthy future, but we must move use caution before we jump into pumping out millions of any new product.
Of course, the smartest energy policy is simply to use less. Turn off the lights, make sure new purchases are energy-efficient, unplug chargers when not in use, use the phone book and a map to look up directions and get directory assistance instead of a computer or phone (I’m guilty of that one all the time), put on a sweater if you’re cold, open the windows if you’re hot, deal with a little discomfort in the name of helping the future, use common sense and do the thing that takes no electricity before you do the thing that takes electricity.
When considering a purchase, I try to follow these guidelines for maximum “greenness.”
1. If you don’t need it, think about what impact it will have over the course of its lifetime, from extraction to disposal, before buying, and if the impact is greater than the usefulness of the product, don’t buy it.
2. If you do need it (e.g., you move to cold environment and need warm socks), then consider this priority scale of purchasing, in order from “most green” to “least green”
a. Used, Biodegradable: Re-use is by far the greenest option for purchasing. A product already in existence does not require any energy for its extraction or manufacture, and creates no demand for new products. Only around 5% of materials that are extracted for manufacturing ever get turned into an actual product, but when you buy used, 100% of the material is being used again! Biodegradable is what everything used to be before the creation of synthetics, and is the most natural state of manufactured products.
b. Used, Recyclable: Second best, recycling still takes energy, but WAY less than extracting, processing, and manufacturing from new materials.
c. Used, disposable: If it is already in its second life, then you are not supporting new manufacture by using it, even though it will end up in the landfill when you use it up.
d. New, Organic, Biodegradable: Biodegradable products, such as organic cotton, can be composted, restoring all of their nutrients to the earth. It is also human instinct to toss our trash on the ground, and if it is biodegradable, no problem! Organic means that no synthetic pesticides (poison), fertilizers or genetic modification have been used. This is healthier for you and the planet. Some new products are still made with a combination, like “60% organic cotton, 40% recycled PET” shorts that I saw at R.E.I. These suck because even though they are organic and recycled, they are effectively no longer compostable or recyclable because of the intermingling of the natural and synthetic fibers, and will end up in a landfill. Try for products made entirely of 1 material.
e. New, 100% recycled: Though arguably worse for your health due to the numerous chemicals that have to be added to plastics to let them serve a second life, hopefully you won’t have to delve into group e or lower very often, since you have 4 other groups of products to choose from that are better! Recycled materials take less energy to make into products than new materials, saving green house gasses.
f. New, 100% recyclable: Hey, if you’re going to get something brand-spanking new that’s really never been anything else first, then at least try to get something totally recyclable that will serve a purpose for more than 1 go-round.
g. New, disposable: Don’t go here! Requires tons of energy to make, then goes in the trash after 1 lifetime. Tennis shoes are a major culprit – but you can recycle the bottoms at FootLocker!
As you can see from the list, the greenest thing to do is just not buy so much stuff, especially if the stuff you already have works fine.
Any new product, unless it is extracted, processed, manufactured, transported and sold with entirely renewable energy, is still putting more greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere and should not be bought just because it is green. This does not help the environment.
I hope that before everyone and their grandma drops what they are doing to go out and buy the latest green products, they think about the repercussions first.
No matter how green, organic, sustainable and animal friendly your new organic cotton pants are, they were still most likely grown in fields of cotton that were planted and harvested by giant diesel tractors, shipped in giant diesel trucks to factories that processed, weaved and dyed them using lots of non-renewable energy, then shipped again to a store that doesn’t use renewable energy for its operations to sell them to you. And you probably drove to the store to get them, maybe in a hybrid car, which is slightly less bad than a regular car. The overall “green-ness” of those pants is only slightly higher than the regular pants you’ve always bought. Not to say that if you really need a new pair of pants, you should buy pesticide-laden cotton (cotton is the most highly sprayed crop in the world, using around 16% of all pesticides worldwide). On the contrary, a new pair of organic cotton pants is better for the environment than a new pair of poison cotton pants, but not so much so that you should abandon your old pants.
Actually, the greenest thing you could do is patch your old pants, using your own hands to sew the patch, and keep right on wearing them until they decompose off of your body. But that might not fly in some fashion circles.
Another example:
Green Build, the largest green building conference in the nation (Boston this November 19-21), has as one of its stated goals:
“Build 1 million green homes”
Now this may sound great to those who are clamoring for green jobs and the use of green materials, but what it says to me is “use energy and resources enough to build another MILLION homes!”
Of course the argument exists that we would be building another million homes anyway, but I can’t help thinking that the enthusiasm for building green homes (and other buildings) sometimes overshadows the fact that to produce green materials and turn them into usable buildings STILL takes TONS of fossil fuels. Transportation, manufacturing, materials sourcing and the construction methods themselves all have a long way to go before they could be considered “good” for anyone. They may be less-bad, but that doesn’t make them good! Even if manufacturing these 1 million green homes produces ½ of the carbon emissions of traditional homes, that means that we are allowing and accepting the production of tons more carbon emissions!
When considering options for the future of our nation’s energy, many people are quick to jump to solar energy and wind energy. While I agree that these options would be less damaging to the environment in the long run than continuing to produce power with coal or nuclear power plants, we must still consider their impacts.
It still takes TONS of energy to manufacture the windmills and solar panels that we are considering installing. Many solar panels are still manufactured using cadmium telluride, a toxic material that, unless completely recycled at the end of its life cycle, will end up in our environment just like the myriad of toxins that are currently improperly disposed of every day. I do believe that solar energy as well as wind energy are part of the answer to our healthy future, but we must move use caution before we jump into pumping out millions of any new product.
Of course, the smartest energy policy is simply to use less. Turn off the lights, make sure new purchases are energy-efficient, unplug chargers when not in use, use the phone book and a map to look up directions and get directory assistance instead of a computer or phone (I’m guilty of that one all the time), put on a sweater if you’re cold, open the windows if you’re hot, deal with a little discomfort in the name of helping the future, use common sense and do the thing that takes no electricity before you do the thing that takes electricity.
When considering a purchase, I try to follow these guidelines for maximum “greenness.”
1. If you don’t need it, think about what impact it will have over the course of its lifetime, from extraction to disposal, before buying, and if the impact is greater than the usefulness of the product, don’t buy it.
2. If you do need it (e.g., you move to cold environment and need warm socks), then consider this priority scale of purchasing, in order from “most green” to “least green”
a. Used, Biodegradable: Re-use is by far the greenest option for purchasing. A product already in existence does not require any energy for its extraction or manufacture, and creates no demand for new products. Only around 5% of materials that are extracted for manufacturing ever get turned into an actual product, but when you buy used, 100% of the material is being used again! Biodegradable is what everything used to be before the creation of synthetics, and is the most natural state of manufactured products.
b. Used, Recyclable: Second best, recycling still takes energy, but WAY less than extracting, processing, and manufacturing from new materials.
c. Used, disposable: If it is already in its second life, then you are not supporting new manufacture by using it, even though it will end up in the landfill when you use it up.
d. New, Organic, Biodegradable: Biodegradable products, such as organic cotton, can be composted, restoring all of their nutrients to the earth. It is also human instinct to toss our trash on the ground, and if it is biodegradable, no problem! Organic means that no synthetic pesticides (poison), fertilizers or genetic modification have been used. This is healthier for you and the planet. Some new products are still made with a combination, like “60% organic cotton, 40% recycled PET” shorts that I saw at R.E.I. These suck because even though they are organic and recycled, they are effectively no longer compostable or recyclable because of the intermingling of the natural and synthetic fibers, and will end up in a landfill. Try for products made entirely of 1 material.
e. New, 100% recycled: Though arguably worse for your health due to the numerous chemicals that have to be added to plastics to let them serve a second life, hopefully you won’t have to delve into group e or lower very often, since you have 4 other groups of products to choose from that are better! Recycled materials take less energy to make into products than new materials, saving green house gasses.
f. New, 100% recyclable: Hey, if you’re going to get something brand-spanking new that’s really never been anything else first, then at least try to get something totally recyclable that will serve a purpose for more than 1 go-round.
g. New, disposable: Don’t go here! Requires tons of energy to make, then goes in the trash after 1 lifetime. Tennis shoes are a major culprit – but you can recycle the bottoms at FootLocker!
As you can see from the list, the greenest thing to do is just not buy so much stuff, especially if the stuff you already have works fine.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Everything Seems Fine
I don't get a newspaper and I don't watch TV. Right now, it is a sunny day here on the central coast of California, with a slight breeze and clear skies. Everything seems pretty hunky-dory(sp?).
Even though I don't go to a regular news outlet for my news, I still hear about all the big stuff. Earthquake in China kills 68,000; Obama clinches the democratic nomination (though not yet officially); gas at $4 a gallon; etc. Are these things affecting me right now? The answer is truly NO. Perhaps they will affect me very soon - when I go to buy something at a store, or want to take a trip somewhere, or don't want to pay my taxes next year, but at this very moment, none of that stuff is affecting me. My laptop runs on a battery, my internet rarely has issues, and even if the power went out, I could still be sitting here, typing this, totally disconnected from the grid.
How then, with the outside world playing no role in my current day-to-day activities, am I supposed to care about all of the things that people are trying to convince me to care about?
How am I supposed to care about the things that truly are going to affect me in the future, if I can’t even see them?
How is Joe Shmoe in the middle of America supposed to care about rainforest deforestation in Brazil? How is he supposed to care about food shortages in Africa or earthquakes in China? Or the lack of clean water for 2 billion people around the world? How is he supposed to care that Wal-Mart puts a few people out of business in the next town over, if he doesn't even know who those people are?
And yet people do care.
I care because I am able to look beyond this moment in time. I care because I can see that my actions as well as the actions of every other speck of matter in this universe will affect my future, as well as the future of every other living thing on the planet. I care because I know that my actions can make a difference, because I read scientific studies about the effects of human activities, and because I want to have healthy, happy grandchildren someday. I care because I know that if I sit around and let the world pass me by, then it will become a worse place due to my negligence, and I will not let that happen. It is a call to action, a moral duty to do what I can to make the world a better place because I know that some of my actions are affecting others negatively. I care because I am educated, thoughtful and compassionate, and I have the ability to improve things. I care because if I don’t take action, then I am NOT an innocent bystander, I am guilty of watching the world and life as we know it (including ourselves) slowly and methodically murdered by mankind.
The question is, why do some people not care?
And more importantly, why don't people DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT if they do care?
Of course other priorities get in the way, most predominantly: Making sure you and your family have enough food to eat, clean water to drink, and a safe place to sleep. But ultimately, these priorities are the same priorities that I have for current & future generations. What if all of our food and water is poisoned, our homes are threatened by severe climate disturbances and massive migration due to war and famine, and we can't get food from a store because shipping costs due to high oil prices go through the roof? Then why are we so stuck on taking care of these smaller, more immediate needs that MOST people, especially in 1st world countries, have already met and exceeded?
The truth is, most of us who have the power to make change have already met our basic needs, and we have surpluses of time & energy with which to take on a truly meaningful calling. Many of us will look at the statement "surpluses of time & energy" and scoff, but if we took the time to analyze what we actually spend our time and money on (both of which can often be equated to our labor), we would realize that much of it is drained into a system which has more negative impacts than positive ones. Who are you helping when you buy a new TV? Where does the money go when you spend it on gasoline? How many hours do you work in a week, and whom are you helping with your work?
Are you making the world a better place for yourself and future generations? If not, then why not?
"In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation... even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine."
- Great Law of the Iroquois
It is difficult to change our way of life from thinking about money and retirement and material things to thinking about the future health of our species and the health of our environment. It is difficult, but necessary. The seventh generation into the future depends upon it.
The question then, that I come back to is: How can we ensure that every Joe Shmoe knows that his/her own healthy survival, as well as that of the seventh generation, depends upon his/her actions?
And if the people don’t care about survival, family, and health, then what do they care about?
Even though I don't go to a regular news outlet for my news, I still hear about all the big stuff. Earthquake in China kills 68,000; Obama clinches the democratic nomination (though not yet officially); gas at $4 a gallon; etc. Are these things affecting me right now? The answer is truly NO. Perhaps they will affect me very soon - when I go to buy something at a store, or want to take a trip somewhere, or don't want to pay my taxes next year, but at this very moment, none of that stuff is affecting me. My laptop runs on a battery, my internet rarely has issues, and even if the power went out, I could still be sitting here, typing this, totally disconnected from the grid.
How then, with the outside world playing no role in my current day-to-day activities, am I supposed to care about all of the things that people are trying to convince me to care about?
How am I supposed to care about the things that truly are going to affect me in the future, if I can’t even see them?
How is Joe Shmoe in the middle of America supposed to care about rainforest deforestation in Brazil? How is he supposed to care about food shortages in Africa or earthquakes in China? Or the lack of clean water for 2 billion people around the world? How is he supposed to care that Wal-Mart puts a few people out of business in the next town over, if he doesn't even know who those people are?
And yet people do care.
I care because I am able to look beyond this moment in time. I care because I can see that my actions as well as the actions of every other speck of matter in this universe will affect my future, as well as the future of every other living thing on the planet. I care because I know that my actions can make a difference, because I read scientific studies about the effects of human activities, and because I want to have healthy, happy grandchildren someday. I care because I know that if I sit around and let the world pass me by, then it will become a worse place due to my negligence, and I will not let that happen. It is a call to action, a moral duty to do what I can to make the world a better place because I know that some of my actions are affecting others negatively. I care because I am educated, thoughtful and compassionate, and I have the ability to improve things. I care because if I don’t take action, then I am NOT an innocent bystander, I am guilty of watching the world and life as we know it (including ourselves) slowly and methodically murdered by mankind.
The question is, why do some people not care?
And more importantly, why don't people DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT if they do care?
Of course other priorities get in the way, most predominantly: Making sure you and your family have enough food to eat, clean water to drink, and a safe place to sleep. But ultimately, these priorities are the same priorities that I have for current & future generations. What if all of our food and water is poisoned, our homes are threatened by severe climate disturbances and massive migration due to war and famine, and we can't get food from a store because shipping costs due to high oil prices go through the roof? Then why are we so stuck on taking care of these smaller, more immediate needs that MOST people, especially in 1st world countries, have already met and exceeded?
The truth is, most of us who have the power to make change have already met our basic needs, and we have surpluses of time & energy with which to take on a truly meaningful calling. Many of us will look at the statement "surpluses of time & energy" and scoff, but if we took the time to analyze what we actually spend our time and money on (both of which can often be equated to our labor), we would realize that much of it is drained into a system which has more negative impacts than positive ones. Who are you helping when you buy a new TV? Where does the money go when you spend it on gasoline? How many hours do you work in a week, and whom are you helping with your work?
Are you making the world a better place for yourself and future generations? If not, then why not?
"In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation... even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine."
- Great Law of the Iroquois
It is difficult to change our way of life from thinking about money and retirement and material things to thinking about the future health of our species and the health of our environment. It is difficult, but necessary. The seventh generation into the future depends upon it.
The question then, that I come back to is: How can we ensure that every Joe Shmoe knows that his/her own healthy survival, as well as that of the seventh generation, depends upon his/her actions?
And if the people don’t care about survival, family, and health, then what do they care about?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Plastic is the DEVIL/hipocrisy
Plastic: the most prolific man-made material that will NEVER BIODEGRADE. It is so highly synthesized that no known organism can digest it, and therefore every piece of plastic that is ever manufactured (from petroleum) will persist in our environment FOREVER! This has major implications! It can photo-degrade (break into smaller pieces) but never biodegrade.
First of all, the extraction of crude oil and all of the problems that go along with it (war, environmental destruction, international instability) are part of the plastic cycle because PLASTIC IS MADE FROM CRUDE OIL. (At least, 99.999 percent is at this point).
Next, the manufacture of plastics is incredibly energy intensive, and produces TONS of toxins & some carcinogens. (Toxic = negative health effects, Carcinogen = causes cancer).
After that, many of the plastics themselves are toxic (such as PVC: http://www.noharm.org/us/pvcdehp/issue).
That "new car" or "new paint" smell is most likely giving you brain damage due to off-gassing
Also, drinking and eating from many plastics can cause reproductive harm
And even more so, our natural environment is filling up with this totally unnatural stuff: http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/
What to do? STOP USING, BUYING, CREATING PLASTICS made from petroleum. They are the most unnatural material on the planet, will never go away and are totally BAD FOR OUR HEALTH AND THE HEALTH OF ALL CURRENT AND FUTURE ORGANISMS ON THIS PLANET.
That said, I am wearing plastic sunglasses, a plastic hat, and a plastic shirt in my profile picture. I didn't know as much about plastics when I bought those things as I do now. But I will also be the first to admit that I am a hypocrite. We are all hypocrites, and while contradicting ourselves constantly is part of human nature, that does not make it "OK". We should strive to rid ourselves of our hypocrisies and live true to our values, especially if we are teaching and spouting those values to others.
When you are able, please buy natural materials and not plastic. A wonderful industry of alternatives is sprouting up everywhere. Some great new advances have turned vegetable oil, silica, soy, bamboo, corn, potatoes, wool, silk and natural rubber latex into all sorts of things that we used to rely on plastics for. Plastic hides under many names, especially when it is turned into apparrel. Here are a few of the names of plastic:
Vinyl
PVC
Nylon
Polyester
Gore-Tex
PTFE
Lexan
polyurethane
Take the time to research your consumption! And if nothing else please don't buy products that are KNOWN TO CAUSE CANCER!!!!
First of all, the extraction of crude oil and all of the problems that go along with it (war, environmental destruction, international instability) are part of the plastic cycle because PLASTIC IS MADE FROM CRUDE OIL. (At least, 99.999 percent is at this point).
Next, the manufacture of plastics is incredibly energy intensive, and produces TONS of toxins & some carcinogens. (Toxic = negative health effects, Carcinogen = causes cancer).
After that, many of the plastics themselves are toxic (such as PVC: http://www.noharm.org/us/pvcdehp/issue).
That "new car" or "new paint" smell is most likely giving you brain damage due to off-gassing
Also, drinking and eating from many plastics can cause reproductive harm
And even more so, our natural environment is filling up with this totally unnatural stuff: http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/
What to do? STOP USING, BUYING, CREATING PLASTICS made from petroleum. They are the most unnatural material on the planet, will never go away and are totally BAD FOR OUR HEALTH AND THE HEALTH OF ALL CURRENT AND FUTURE ORGANISMS ON THIS PLANET.
That said, I am wearing plastic sunglasses, a plastic hat, and a plastic shirt in my profile picture. I didn't know as much about plastics when I bought those things as I do now. But I will also be the first to admit that I am a hypocrite. We are all hypocrites, and while contradicting ourselves constantly is part of human nature, that does not make it "OK". We should strive to rid ourselves of our hypocrisies and live true to our values, especially if we are teaching and spouting those values to others.
When you are able, please buy natural materials and not plastic. A wonderful industry of alternatives is sprouting up everywhere. Some great new advances have turned vegetable oil, silica, soy, bamboo, corn, potatoes, wool, silk and natural rubber latex into all sorts of things that we used to rely on plastics for. Plastic hides under many names, especially when it is turned into apparrel. Here are a few of the names of plastic:
Vinyl
PVC
Nylon
Polyester
Gore-Tex
PTFE
Lexan
polyurethane
Take the time to research your consumption! And if nothing else please don't buy products that are KNOWN TO CAUSE CANCER!!!!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Time to start sharing knowledge, something personal
I know that I have more to learn than I have to teach.
I also know that I should teach what I know, even while I am still learning.
I am in my mid-twenties, still searching for my path in life. Transformation occurs within me on an almost daily basis, re-aiming my goals and directions, causing me to re-evaluate what I once thought was important, normal, righteous.
I intend to live a life directed not by societal expectations, but by compassion for my fellow beings, human and otherwise, as well as the deep knowledge that my intuition has more often lead me in the right direction than have the expectations of America. I intend to be unpredictable and spontaneous, to live outside of categories and norms, to not take for granted many of the things that the majority seems to.
I do not watch TV (commercials especially).
I try to spend more time outside than inside.
I eat responsibly grown and raised foods, most of which I know the source of.
I have a strong belief that the world, and especially America, is poised for major change in the coming 10-20 years. Not only politically and economically, but a core change in the values and understanding of the people, the way we are connected to the planet, and how our actions will affect the lives of future generations.
I believe in a healthy, active lifestyle, minimizing consumption of disposable goods.
I am an advisor to the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) http://sustainabilitycoalition.org/
I teach recycling and composting education for the San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA)
I am going to Costa Rica & Belize for the summer to lead a trip for Wilderness Ventures. http://wildernessventures.com/summer_programs/trip.php?id=69&cat_id=3
I crave the knowledge of the natives of this land, though I know that much of it has been lost, and most of the rest has been changed.
I just finished a 3 day solo backpack through the Santa Lucia Wilderness near Arroyo Grande, CA, my current home.
I wish love upon you and all the creatures of this world.
I write on a huge range of topics, but much of what I write are simply the random wanderings of my mind.
I also know that I should teach what I know, even while I am still learning.
I am in my mid-twenties, still searching for my path in life. Transformation occurs within me on an almost daily basis, re-aiming my goals and directions, causing me to re-evaluate what I once thought was important, normal, righteous.
I intend to live a life directed not by societal expectations, but by compassion for my fellow beings, human and otherwise, as well as the deep knowledge that my intuition has more often lead me in the right direction than have the expectations of America. I intend to be unpredictable and spontaneous, to live outside of categories and norms, to not take for granted many of the things that the majority seems to.
I do not watch TV (commercials especially).
I try to spend more time outside than inside.
I eat responsibly grown and raised foods, most of which I know the source of.
I have a strong belief that the world, and especially America, is poised for major change in the coming 10-20 years. Not only politically and economically, but a core change in the values and understanding of the people, the way we are connected to the planet, and how our actions will affect the lives of future generations.
I believe in a healthy, active lifestyle, minimizing consumption of disposable goods.
I am an advisor to the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) http://sustainabilitycoalition.org/
I teach recycling and composting education for the San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA)
I am going to Costa Rica & Belize for the summer to lead a trip for Wilderness Ventures. http://wildernessventures.com/summer_programs/trip.php?id=69&cat_id=3
I crave the knowledge of the natives of this land, though I know that much of it has been lost, and most of the rest has been changed.
I just finished a 3 day solo backpack through the Santa Lucia Wilderness near Arroyo Grande, CA, my current home.
I wish love upon you and all the creatures of this world.
I write on a huge range of topics, but much of what I write are simply the random wanderings of my mind.
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