Commentary, insights and opinions on news, culture, and critical contemporary issues with a focus on the historical forces that have helped to shape today's world.

Monday, February 18, 2008

It's Not Easy Being Green, or, Was Ronald Reagan Right???

While perusing an old “Nature Conservancy” magazine in a doctor’s waiting room (they were out of Glamour and Vogue) I came across an article about trees, carbon, and global warming. I was shocked to find a scientist make the same claims that Ronald Reagan did 20 years ago – that the CO2 emitting from trees is a contributor to global warming. And the fact that having given up MacDonald’s hamburgers because the cattle ranching was destroying the Amazon rainforest, I was heartened to read that Europeans have forced the ranchers to stop raising cattle there – but now they are destroying the rainforest faster than ever, by growing the soybeans that are being fed to cattle. Only a very small portion of the soybean crop – 5-10% -- actually goes to soy products for human consumption.

As part of my commitment to the environment, I have purchased re-usable grocery bags, to reduce the use of plastic bags. But now, I have a shortage of plastic bags to use in my wastepaper basket (and what, exactly, is wastepaper? I try to recycle that too.) to throw out my garbage.

I carry a canvas bag with me to eliminate the little bags that accumulate on quick shopping trips to the drugstore or post office. I wrestle with using the three incandescent bulbs in my bedroom floor lamp that give off so much heat that I barely have to turn on the heat in my home. And then a situation occurs, like this morning, for example, when I woke up to 15 degree weather and no heat. While I waited for the repairperson to come (mercifully, it was a very short wait) I remembered to turn on the three incandescent bulbs to successfully warm my room. So at least until this spring, those bulbs stay.

My apartment building, for some reason known only to G-d and our mayor, is exempt from recycling. The only way to recycle plastic, paper, and cardboard is to save up a car-load and deliver it by car to the recycling center. So my tiny apartment now serves as a storage unit for plastic containers, newspapers, and cartons. And I have to remember that they are only open Tuesday through Saturday, and not on Mondays, which is the most convenient day for me. But to save the planet, I do it.

Oprah Winfrey has pointed out that I am poisoning myself and my beloved home planet, Earth, by drinking cold water out of Poland Spring Water bottles. (I buy a 6-pack of the product in the supermarket, then refill the bottles from the tap.) Oprah’s green guru recommends aluminum bottles, which are guaranteed to be practically indestructible, while anyone who knows me knows that if something guaranteed to be practically indestructible, I will take advantage of that loophole to destroy it. Or, lose it. With those ubiquitous Poland Spring bottles, if I lose one, it’s no great loss. But Oprah’s favorite bottle costs $20 a pop, and whether filled with pop or water, that’s quite a penalty for doing the right thing.

My expiration date is probably less than 40 years from now, coincidentally the amount of time I’ve heard that the planet, at its current rate, has left. Sometime in the next 40 years I will die without issue. So why do I care? I am quite certain that once I slip the surly bonds of Earth I will not have access to a view of my former home planet, so I will not even know if my efforts had any lasting effect. Perhaps I just want to flaunt my “goodness.” I don’t want to just be holier than thou, I want you to know that I am holier than thou.

Or maybe it’s because leaving nothing lasting behind, I want to leave a mark on the place where I lived. And that mark will be a few more trees, a few less oil wells, and at least one magical, blindingly furious, dazzling snow storm every year.

January 21, 2008

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About Me

I am the Communications Coordinator at The Huntington Freedom Center's Early Childhood Learning Program. I review books on Amazon.com, and am an essayist and writer. I previously worked as the Assistant Editor of the Film Folio Magazine from The Cinema Arts Centre.

My Favorite Children's Books

  • "Over and Over" by Charlotte Zolotow

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