Letters to the Editor
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So typical
Nice hit piece.
Anytime anyone tries to live a greener lifestyle someone immediately points out something they are not doing. Imagine if it went like this:
Marge: Homer, I have decided to volunteer 10 hours a week at the homeless shelter.
Homer: Lame. Why don't you offer to let some homeless people live here and why don't you volunteer 20 hours.
Changing awareness and behavior are a real challenge, but this looks promising. It won't be suprising to find that next year the consciousness of the moms has been raised and the SUV has been traded in for a hybrid and filtered tap water is on the table.
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Not a Mom
Because I am NotaMom, does this mean I get to pollute and litter? Does this mean, if I do go Green, it doesn't count?
Or does it mean that these people simply have a bigger ecological footprint?
The Mommy Wars turn self-righteous on yet another front.
You know, it -is- possible to be politically conscious without having reproduced. You -do- know this, don't you? It doesn't seem evident from your stories.
Ever read any Philip Wylie? Or wonder why these women are not called Mothers, rather than Moms?
Lord, I hate the screaming cutes.
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Yo mama is so green ...
...she fails to mention the numerous errors, innaccuracies and flat-out lies in "An Inconvenient Truth"!!!
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Tiny Steps
The key thing of course is a national crash emergency plan on the environment. And that all relates to politics.
But I'm not waiting. If people start changing their little habits, it can have a ripple effect. Nearly every week I discover something that can be improved environmentally.
Right now I'm going to compost my dog's sh*t in a hole in the ground. I just bought organic cotton sheets and a wind up flashlight. Finally got rid of paper and plastic bags in my house. Wax bags for lunch sandwiches. Real knives and forks and napkins for eating at work, no 'picnic' ware. First time for any of this, and I'm a so-called 'environmentalist.' And there is plenty more after this. My heat is set at 63 degrees when I'm there, 52 when I'm not, in Minnesota. I'm now thinking of turning part of my yard into a food garden...
Pretending environmentalism is a petit-bourgeois concern is the refuge of fools. Eventually what these women are doing will spread and filter to other's in their class. Given the SUV and the bottled water, it just looks like they are still not thinking deeply enough about it all.
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First off San Pellegrino is fizzy
So it's not likely you can get that out of the tap. Next, Greentards, I have a severe drought. I am not planning on paying an obscenely high surcharge for water if I can get it cheaper from a bottle.
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Reduced guilt does not equal the 90% energy-use reduction needed
I’m sorry, it is difficult to get behind a group of people who are recommending such ineffective less-than-half-measures. Fluorescent lights? We still don’t have a way to deal with the mercury in them. How about only using the lighting that is absolutely necessary to the task at hand. Modern LEDs can meet many lighting needs now.
And “Drive More Efficiently”? How about canning the convenience driving. That would be about 95% of most American’s driving. Also, how about being more considerate of the safety needs of cyclists/pedestrians? That means assuming they are around the next blind corner and not speeding past within inches of them. And, “drive a hybrid” really is ignorant. Many “hybrids” appearing on the market today are SUVs that get 15 mpg (considered a big improvement over the 12 mpg nonhybrid version) and even the most fuel efficient hybrids take up to five years to pay down the carbon footprint of their creation.
I notice they don’t mention eliminating air conditioning or significantly reducing home heating (if you’re not an invalid, why do you need to heat over 50 F? Get a sweater.). Considering that these interior climate controls are contributing to the global climate catastrophe at a level comparable to unnecessary driving, how can they be ignored?
Overall, it looks like just another bunch of car-bound Americans who don’t want to view themselves as part of the problem. These groups seem designed to allow people to feel less guilty about not making the necessary changes in their lifestyles that are required in order to prevent the environmental genocide that is coming in Africa, Asia and South America as a result of America’s indefensibly large energy use. Our carbon footprint is being laid across the world’s throat.
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Real ecomoms
adopt.
Once you give birth your footprint, carbon and otherwise, is infinte.
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every bit helps
I suspect if these moms are "new" to these ideas that they'll adopt more green ways of living as they start to realize the benefits. Making fun of them serves no purpose. Some people are slower to catch on, but at least they've gotten started.
A few really simple things that make a difference:
Wash your dishes by hand and let them air dry. No electricity! Save electricity for appliances that are truly inconvenient to do without, like washers or refrigerators. If you have teenagers, you have slave dishwashing labor available - make use of it!
Line dry your clothes whenever possible.
Use reusable plastic sandwich boxes - I bought a set of three and have been using them for several years. No more disposable lunch wrapping of any sort. (Yes, they're made from oil, but they replace countless boxes of sandwich bags or waxed paper.)
Use bar soap instead of liquid soap - way cheaper, and there's no plastic to recycle. My local food coop sells natural brand body lotions from gigantic pump dispensers so I refill my plastic lotion bottle there and save more plastic bottles from the recycler. I hope they can do this with shampoo someday. I'm a recycling skeptic, though I recycle everything, even the little labels on my teabag strings.
Buy a bag of cheap dishcloths and use them instead of paper towels. Toss them in your laundry - there's always room for a few - and wash and reuse them. Use cloth napkins - same idea.
After almost 35 years I let my Wall Street Journal print subscription lapse and paid for the full-access online edition. All the same news, no paper to recycle.
Etc. etc. Just little things here and there do add up, so I congratulate these women on starting the ball rolling.