I keep thinking about that saying that you should leave the world better than you found it. It makes me stop and analyze every little thing. I don’t want to be one of those people who just abuses this planet and leaves the fallout to my kids. It’s not right.
The last couple years my husband and I have been on this documentary kick. It’s amazing what we’re capable of ignoring just because we don’t want to deal with it. Especially here in America, we walk around thinking that we’re invincible and that there are no consequences for our excessive lifestyle. If we can’t see it, it must not be an issue, right? I guess not!
For example, there is a pile of garbage floating in the pacific. Some say it’s bigger than the continental US, others say it’s the size of Texas, and some say it’s twice the size of Hawaii. Either way, what the hell!?! Did I really need to drink that 4th bottle of bottled water today? I always look at the packaging involved when I get takeout. It makes me want to vow to never eat out again, turn my backyard into an organic garden and become the vegetarian Barefoot Contessa. My husband and I and our two dogs live in an 1800 square foot house. We don’t use half of it, but we’re still considering upgrading. I did some spring cleaning recently, and I literally could’ve thrown away half of all my possessions and never looked back. Where does this stuff come from? And why do I feel like I need it?
I’m not delusional enough to think I’m just going to quit working and move into a cardboard box but it does force me to start making some changes. We stopped buying bottled water. We have half a dozen reusable bottles now, and every time I fill one up I feel like I’m doing a good thing. I bought one of those reusable iced coffee cups at Starbucks. My goal was, “I’m only gonna go when I plan ahead enough to bring the cup with me.” Yeah right! I’m still working on this one, but I’m ok with that. We use reusable grocery bags, we buy food in bulk when we can to reduce wasted packaging. I try to keep all the lights off in the house unless we really need them. None of this is really an inconvenience to me, but if everyone did it, imagine how much less crap would be in our landfills right now!
If any of this is speaking to any of you, please check out this movie on Netflix: No Impact Man.
It seriously changed my life. It’s about a guy who decides to go a year with no carbon footprint whatsoever. He’s married with a baby. They lived without electricity (except for the little they could get from one solar panel on top of their NYC apartment building) for a whole year. The switched to a vegetarian diet. They ate seasonally, locally, sustainably, and humanely. They never ate out, brought bags or cloths to the market to wrap their cheese, fruits, and veggies in. They walked or rode bikes everywhere, even with a baby in tow. They take this thing to the extreme, cutting out one thing at a time to see what we can reasonably live without. They did decide that toilet paper was something that wasn’t reasonable to cut out, thank God for that. Still, these people were hugely inspirational to me. I wish I could do that, even for a week. Maybe now that I’ve posted about it I’ll feel more pressure to follow in their footsteps which would definitely be a good thing. Baby steps guys, baby steps.
If any of you have an awesome tip for me, please share!
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