This week's carbon cleanse challenge includes a blogging component that I had high hopes of achieving every evening... but we'll have to make a single post on the last Friday do ;)
According to some I know;), we're kinda freakishly green. The kind of green that keeps you from actually admitting the full details of your life, due to doubts that people will still spend time with you afterwards :) I typically skip all of the enviro-babble on this blog unless it directly pertains to P (see blog title:). But since the Little Man has welcomed this week with open arms - and its subject provides some parenting pickles - I thought I'd include The Impact's nitty gritty. I am wary though, of sounding preachy. We're not back-patting people here, and talking solutions and successes typically feels braggartly to me. But part of the challenge is to share ideas, with the hopes of inspiring even more change and getting suggestions for even more success, so, here goes, the good with the bad ;)
Sunday: Consumption: Short of spending time around fabric filled frock shops with my mum (where my knees go weak and my serious enviro-bent bends badly...) this one's pretty simple. If we finally decide to buy something, its almost always from a flea market, antique store, stoop sale or craig's list. We like old things better anyway, and with patience or a little paint or a good scrub its all fabtastic. But having the Little Man around has thrown an enormous monkey wrench into our well oiled approach. While he's equally happy with homemade and thrift stores, some specific toys can often only be found already used on ebay. Then the good intentions get complicated by the shipping, an obviously unhappy carbon kink. And new toys, well.... This is the part of consensual living that is the most challenging to me. I can stand horrified by the throw-away mentality of most toy manufacturers, but I can't expect my five year old to flawlessly follow suit. I constantly have to remember that my choices, my life philosophies and priorities are mine, and let him own his choices and his life. This can occasionally be painful and I swear I occasionally hear the earth groan :) Fortunately, the kid was scarred by Wall-E (tongue only slightly in cheek here) and oftenish goes for the enviro-choice. Long story short: E and I try hard in this category, and while keeping the challenge in mind this week, the Little Man and I have a flawless consumption record...for a whole 5 days running ;)
Monday: Trash: I was curious how this would go. Since we buy little, we're in good shape package-waste-wise. And we absolutely grocery shop with garbage in mind, which does a lot for the footprint. (The kid mimics here surprisingly simply, he sees all our efforts in this category and seems to take it to heart. Additionally, homemade just tastes better, so there's rarely a request for store-bought snacks at the store.) We make our own pitas, granola bars, cookies, beans, yogurt, kefir and tortillas etc and typically skip the chips, crackers and boxed goods that make so much waste. If we do buy anything processed, it comes in a glass jar, which we re-use. Our milk comes from a local dairy and we return our old glass bottles for new ones each weekend, a lovely closed cycle. Same with the dozens of eggs we go through, the used cardboard holders get traded out for fresh cartons filled with divine, orange yolked beauties each weekend. We carry cloth bags with us everywhere, so we never use plastic bags and we put our veggies in cloth bags too. Skipping the clamshell greens did wonders for our trashcan's volume, though it takes a lot longer to make a spinach salad ;) We don't use paper products (paper towels, tissues, etc - our rag bin does it all except for the snottiest of colds), the Keeper is my fave waste reducer for women and simple steps like a chalkboard list followed by an iphone photo for the weekly groceries all help keep the garbage low. But, for us, the biggest improvement comes from composting. Cooking twenty some meals, plus snacks, each week can create a lot of veggie scraps. With only three worm bins these days, half of our food scraps were left over each weekend (our previous six were a perfect fit for food extras, but not for square footage!). Those scraps fills a dustbin fast. But the garden we joined keeps a compost pile for kitchen scraps. So our major improvement this week was keeping all of our scraps out of the landfill (30% of NYC's landfill is full of compostable food scraps! doh'!) and schelpping them to the garden instead. So, as of Friday, 6 days through our challenge, our wastebin is just over 1/2 full and our recycling bins still pretty empty.
Tuesday: Transportation: Seriously, one of our favorite parts of living here is never getting in a car. We adore mass transit. Granted, there are those sweaty, running late moments, when the train suddenly switches lines, the static-filled announcement is incomprehensible, and you are left confused, pissed, stranded and late... But those rare occurrences are overwhelmingly worth it. I love sitting with P en route, reading and chatting. And we all adore scooting everywhere. Cars just make me dizzy and mad :) We've also been working hard this year to skip online shopping. The tricky part of consuming only that which is environmentally responsible is getting those responsible makers and merchants to ship shit across the country, not much of a carbon cleanse then :) I'm leaning more and more towards homemade and the philosophy surrounding the homesteading movement. Now, if only I could find a green solution for seeing the far flung family. The footprint of flying is seriously guilt inducing... Anyone else ready to ride the rails again? If only we would all join together and demand that the car company's atrocities be righted by a righteous rail-system...
Wednesday: Food: Trash day kinda covered the end-of-life side of the food issue. For Wednesday, we were supposed to focus on our food impact, from the raising to the getting. E and I long ago figured that our voices, despite letter writing campaigns or marches, are hardly heard; we're too tiny :) But the bottom dollar screams. So we've done our best to make every dollar count. We research all of our choices and save our spending for companies making socially and environmentally responsible products. A guy asked me once why we ate organic, since shit is in our air, our water, and therefore, already in our bodies. I had to laugh - its so true. While what goes into bodies became a bit bigger to me years later when I had a kid with food sensitivities, before that, the going in wasn't the big deal. It was more about the dollars going out. Specifically, where they were going out to. My itty bitty attempt to scream with my spending :) After all, I've smoked and drank and partied and eaten everything. (Granted, now I'm older and my body is more particular about what makes it run ;) but I still figure we're an amazingly resilient species (just look at my baby brother's diet ;) I love you!) So, we eat local, organic and primarily vegetarian because its better for the world. We want to support the farmers that are doing what's right. Fabulously, it just so happens to taste better too, and is, if you like the research, better for our bods. Bottom line: We have a finite budget and we don't want a dime of it to go to schmucks :) Anyone remember the presidential election inspired Heinz boycott relished by Republicans a while back? Same idea, green agenda :)
(This issue is so near and dear to my heart, I'm having a hard time with my plan of brevity :) Our favorite way to be good to the earth each week is shopping at the Green Market. Buying local, farmer ground grains. The brown bag filled flours from our friend are delicious and fresh. They use sustainable practices, so our spelt is guilt free. Ditto the dairy. (Interestingly enough, there are two local dairies represented at the green market, both featuring glass bottles for a gloriously closed cycle. We did a blind taste test between the dairy that is responsible (no hormones or antibiotics etc) but not organic, and the more expensive, organic milk. There was no comparison. Its barely pasteurized and non-homogenized and for the first time in his life, the Little Man requests milk daily. So, our seriously unscientific study showed a clear preference for the organic local stuff;) And comparing it to the store bought (even organic) stuff was downright laughable.) Basically, just eating whole-food based meals, that skip the earth taxing toll meats wreak, brings us slightly closer to a sustainable status. And though this takes a lot of time in the kitchen, homemade hummus is always worth it :) And, really, its all relative. When we were first on our own in college, cooking a soup was a huge ordeal ;) In fact, heating a can of soup was some serious cooking ;) Now, if I only make a soup for supper it seems silly simple :) And from all of the watching and "helping," the Little Man recognizes the effort involved. Reading about Laura's house in the Big Woods was extra fun for P, since their days were similarly filled with the rhythm of survival (though, much to his dismay, we skip the harvesting:), the rhythm of sustaining one's self rather than popping to the local pub for sustenance. And this rhythm saves my sanity, what with all of the bean soaking and baking necessary to always have snacks on hand so we aren't tempted to grab on the go...
And speaking of eating out (which is pretty treacherous from a carbon cleanse point of view)... This fits in with both Consumption day and Food day. We've been doing so well skipping our weekly dinner out the last few months... but summer is coming and we'll be out late each day... and the kid loves to try new foods/new places. (Hitting Pommes Frittes when we were out last week was a huge high for him - especially after a couple of months of homemade granola and apples;) So, here's the balancing bit for me again. I want to be responsible to the earth and true to my preferences, but honor the kid's excitement about life and living it too. So we do the dance and hope for the best:) The Mr., though, well... Mr. "Environmental" had the option to brown bag it this week - and rebelled. He's fully grown, so its easy for me to remember to honor his preferences ;) Nevertheless, I would like to take this chance to publicly shame him for shirking his green duties :) (Mwah-hahaha! I love you - but your baby brother owned you this week, luv;)
Thursday: Energy: I feel like we suck on this one. We use green energy sources and we go without A/C each summer, but we have a long way to go in this category. I can't imagine living without my fridge here, sans cellar. And setting with the sun (thus mitigating our evening power consumption) isn't an option if we want E to see P during the week. Additionally, the kid likes a nightlight in the bedroom, plus the sound machine. I use my computer every day to organize homeschooling stuff (and to, um, blog ;) We do skip the TV thing, but that's pittance, really, compared to turning it all off. We wear our clothes till just short of grossness and re-use glasses all day, which, combined with full loads for both energy sucking machines, helps minimize our impact... but I dream of an off the grid woodland home with one stainless steel bowl each, scrubbed clean with sand and a dry comb :) Sure, toss the word "hardcore" around, I don't care :)
Friday: Water: We try hard on this one, we shower with rarity ;) and only run full loads around here, re-use cooking water, carry our Klean Kanteens everywhere, let the yellow mellow etc, but this week didn't bring us a breakthrough in water usage. We do (well, P and I, Mr. Environmental has yet to join the no-poo club...) skip traditional shampoos that produce bottle trash, put chemicals into our water system and create a sick consumer cycle. Bulk bought baking soda and apple cider vinegar are our shower pals. (I'm only admitting this to a wide audience assuming that no one would read this far in an eco-post :) Similarly, clothing detergents are petroleum nasties, so we use the amazing Charlie's Soap, sold locally, thankfully. But when I think about going through a solo, sacred bucket a day, I feel shaky with the impossibility of it all. So I'll keep brainstorming on ways to cut the water usage...
Our last challenge, tomorrow's focus, is giving back. I'd like to step up our current charity devotions by getting some actual man hours in rather than relying on the all powerful pocketbook. Hopefully, I'll be able to sway the boys to participate in the kid's cancer walk that's coming up. You'll know if I do, cuz I'll post asking for pledges! ;)
Thinking back over the week, I have to admit I haven't been the biggest fan of this carbon cleanse - but I think that's definitely more of a personal issue than any fault of the No Impact Week. Typically, I feel a lightness when doing my green duties, they're like small, silent gifts I'm giving Mother Earth, a pact I make each day to do as little harm to my child's future world as possible, based on love, for him and our amazing planet. Rather than resenting my green choices, I typically relish this reality. But this week, the external expectations clouded that simplicity and colored it dull with the seeming lack of choice. The pride I usually feel at a low level wastebin was stolen by feeling "graded." It was a green buzzkill for my typical enviro-high :) And I realized that, schooled though I was, I must be an unschooler at heart, because having the instructions for No Impact Week, well, it just bugged me. I experienced the validity of the unschooling theory: people learn and perform best when the experience is based on passion.
So, while this week didn't bring us the big, green aha! moments I'd hoped for, it did bring me a solid example of why leading a child-led-learning based life is so joy filled and true. Acting on personal passions rather than other people's pursuits is highly preferable :)
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