I gotta be green

A long, long time ago, when the earth was green (ha!) I went and listened to David Suzuki speak about global warming and what we, as everyday people, can do to help. To say I was inspired would be a slight understatement.

Since that day, we have made many changes around here to try and lower our impact on our dear earth.

Since them have I gotten disenchanted by the lack of compassion by others around me?

I have to be honest. Yes, very much so. At some points I have thought why to I spend so much time caring when no one else seems to give a rat’s @ss? I might as well just do whatever the hell I please too. What’s the point in caring when I might be one of only a handful that do?

But I am re-inspired and re-motivated when I talk to others who care too.

Yesterday, I did a post on Canada Moms Blog about why I think teaching our children to care is so important. About why caring about the environment and our impact on it goes well beyond global warming.

The comments I received lifted my heart up again. There are others out there who do care. My neighbors, with their lofty loads of weekly trash, probably not so much. But them I cannot control nor influence.

What I can do is keep doing what I know to be right, because I don’t know how to stop caring. My parents taught me well.

Here is a laundry list of some of the many things that we do around here that we hope lessens our impact on this great planet. Do they feel like a sacrifice? Not even a little bit. What they are is a way of life and once you start, it’s like riding a bike, there is no turning back.

- laundry – wash in cold water only
- laundry soap – use less than half of what the bottle recommends, your clothes are equally as clean and don’t smell like artificial chemical fragrances, score! ($$ saved)
- turn off the lights when you are not in the room ($$ saved)
- switched to cfc bulbs wherever we can ($$ saved)
- laptop is closed on standby when not in use (when you might ask? Well sometimes!)
- cloth shopping bags and not just for groceries – keep them in your vehicle on the front seat and grab and go
- no individual serving for yogurt etc, buy bulk and use Tupperware
- refill shampoo and condition bottles (believe it or not the salon lady tried to sell me new bottles rather than refilling mine because it would save me $10 – she was shocked when I said no, trying to save plastic here! Held my tongue on saying what I really thought of that policy!)
- save cereal box liner bags – it’s wax paper people!
- Buy organic locally produced meat (going vegetarian is not an option for us, we just can’t do it and since beans can’t grow within a 1,000 mile radius I don’t think that will really help anyway)
- When we eat fast food, I try to take home and recycle whatever I can, makes up a little for how annoying all the waste that is produced from take out
- re-usable veggie bags (oh how I hate those silly thin plastic bags that the grocery store and I just heard about these – thanks Anna. Just ordered them up, I’ll let you know how they work out)
- we try to avoid use of the A/C in the summer (I know, you might find it hard to believe that, we, who live in the Arctic need A/C but most people have it here)
- recycle whatever we can

Do I feel like this is enough? No. Do I do things that contradict my philosophy on trying to be more green? All the time. Does it bother me? Yes. My internal conflicts are fodder for another post. But I think this also highlights that I don’t claim to have all the answers or know the right thing to do. What matters is that we care. And in caring, change will happen.

That is my dream. And world peace, who doesn’t wish for that?

Give me your tips! I am always looking for new ways to reduce our impact!