I signed up for this National Day of Action through environmental blog posts, but I messed up. Monday was a long day, and blogging wasn't the first thing on my mind at the end of the day. I also have been searching for green inspirations and haven't found many. Its raining out, I guess that's pretty green.
I just subscribed to Outside Magazine and have been somewhat disappointed with their layout and general ethic. The pages seem to be drenched in advertisements and their glossy pages don't seem to match their supposed green ideals. They write more about gear and clothing than they do about the great outdoors.
I just read an interesting article about this guy who drives a Ford F150 and he was saying that he wasn't sorry for driving that car. He lives on a farm and produces much of his own food and reads books instead of using his power hungry computer. It seemed to me like a plea for acceptance. Then again, he made some really good points: no matter how far us upper middle class white folk drive in our Prius' (or bike), as a culture we are still rabid consumers. We shop at Safeway and buy organic produce from the likes of New Zealand, in which the transport was probably much more harmful to the environment than the miracle grow on the next door neighbors tomato plants. We use technology and drain power and batteries daily at work and at home, we travel to exotic locales in planes that burn more fuel than 60 cars every 100 miles. i think that if we really want to make true environmental change we do need to re-think the way that things are being done on a very large scale but also on a smaller scale.
I think it is important though to remember the positive, every little bit helps.
I've been researching Buddhism with my students and one of the four noble truths is about longing for things and how that causes suffering. Killing off that desire is one of the hardest things in any of our lives, but it can have a great effect on the planet and in our personal lives.
environmental rant: fin
listening to: The Weepies
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
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I sorta agree with that guy, but I definitely agree with you that it's a plea for acceptance. I think that local produce is far better than NZ grown organic produce. It's an obvious choice in my opinion. If we can create sustainable methods of transportation, I may have to change my mind.
ReplyDeletego sox!