On the perfect eco-day

24 Oct 2005

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

But the question was paper or plastic. We are asked every time we go shopping. What if we're doing all those things you suggested, and we still want to know if we should use paper or plastic? I think your answer was haughty and irresponsible.

Curt
Newton, N.J.

Ask Umbra continues below

ADVERTISING POLICY

Dearest Curt,

So many annoyed readers wrote to chide me on avoiding the paper-or-plastic question. Sorry. I try to entice us all toward bigger themes, with mixed success. Here is an old exploration of the bag issue. The correct answer to the grocery bagger's question is, "Neither, thank you, I brought my own."

Fork in the road? Take it.

So what about the other choices we face every day? Remember, even though we are obsessed with them, they are not as important as we want to believe. Many of them make no difference, except in giving us another point on which to obsess, and we should be conserving our energy for more important -- are you still reading? OK, I will review the perfect tiny-choice day, as I currently understand it from my years of writing this column. You know I spend all day in the basement, so I'll have to scrape the brain barrel for this one, and I might not cover it all.

We wake up in organic and/or hemp sheets, take a shower not a bath, shave with a metal razor, put on air-dried clothes, and have fair-trade coffee. Greet the rest of our efficient household, with whom we share energy-efficient appliances. Pack our old metal lunch box or tiffin. Bike or bus to work. (If we drive, carpool, and at a steady, sensible speed in an efficient -- perhaps even alternative-fuel -- car. Also, open the windows instead of using the AC, and never idle.)

At work, we use a solid mug for coffee, buy recycled paper and reuse as much as possible, plus print as little as possible. We see that our computer goes to sleep quickly and is turned off, along with all other appliances and the lights, when we leave for the day. Maybe we don't work in an office: drivers, plot an efficient route; chefs, try to buy organic and compost scraps; teachers, encourage appreciation of nature in your students.

Then go home, stopping for any necessary errands on the way. No errands that involve purchasing useless, disposable plastic tchotchkes. We fill our cloth shopping bags with fresh, local, vegetarian, unprocessed foods and products with recycled content; no farmed fish, hair dye, nail polish, leg wax, flushable toilet-bowl brushes, diapers, scented candles, tropical fish, or new diamond rings. We cook dinner in the microwave or toaster oven, then put the unrinsed dishes in the efficient dishwasher and food waste in the compost, never using a garbage disposal.

We spend the evening with our family or friends doing a variety of low-impact activities. The following are out: snowmobiling, leaf-blowing, jet-skiing, pesticiding the lawn, tumble-drying clothes, cleaning the tub with toxic chemicals, turning the thermostat to 75 degrees. These others are recommended: walk to nearby entertainment, gather with neighbors and plan to destroy local invasive plants, turn compost, knit, pogo-stick, build a Christmas tree, read The Lorax out loud, watch Hayao Miyazaki movies, turn up the radio and dance all night.

Respectfully,
Umbra

P.S.: Stay tuned for a page of your FAQs, which we'll be unveiling later this week.

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (1 comment)

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The Big Picture

Too many well-intentioned folk rightfully want to take specific small actions in their lives without looking at some of the larger, more important, and, in my view, more effective actions.

My version of the "bigger picture" lecture is that we can spend a lot of time and money on recycling, using less water, purchasing more energy efficient products, and even getting into renewable energy, all laudable actions. However, all the efficient lighting in the world, for example, still uses electricity and makes pollution at the power plant. If the number of energy efficient fossil fuel users is increasing dramatically, though their individual fossil energy uses may decline slightly, more fossil energy is still used.

We therefore need to couple our "tiny" as well as our "larger" and more effective options with political action to 1. force more recognition by leaders of the important role of energy choices in global warming and other pollution effects, 2. pass legislation to drastically increase fuel economy of automobiles, so that everyone driving uses less (in addition to the few glad souls who do so out of care for the planet), 3. pass legislation and take other actions to stop the increase in the number of fossil fuel users in the world (world population in general).

Ross McCluney Cape Canaveral, FL

by rossm at 1:38 PM on 24 Oct 2005

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