New Year’s resolutions, as we all know, are almost entirely pointless—made in one breath, forgotten in the next. So in that spirit of general futility, I offer a few ideas for green resolutions that, either through novelty or just ease of use, may inspire more than a passing commitment. Please leave your own ideas below.
Idea #1: help make "livable streets" a reality in your community
All politics is local, said Tip O’Neill, but most of us still don’t pay much attention to local politics. Issues at a community level are often driven by the triumvirate of homeowners, business owners and car owners—good people, no doubt, but narrow in their interests.
This won’t change if you don’t help make it change. Happily, a thriving network of community organizers is doing great work to promote a people- and environment-centered development agenda, ranging from this new bus system in Cleveland to this bike-sharing program in Tulsa to this massive street festival in New York.
Support their good work! A few ideas for getting involved:
- Get smarter about development issues by spending some time with the great resources at the Livable Streets Network. Subscribe to their blog, subscribe to an affiliated blog focused on your community, watch their films, or read and contribute to their wiki.
- Find or start a local group using the Livable Street Network’s online tools.
- Get involved with a local organization like Transportation Alternatives (based in New York). Or support them financially by attending some of their fun events.
Idea #2: eat more plants
I’ll take it as given that no one is going to adopt vegetarianism as a result of this blog post. But, speaking as one omnivore to another, perhaps I can convince you that reducing the environmental impact of your diet is both easy and enjoyable. The carbon footprint of food is an insanely complicated topic, so I’m going to organize these food-related resolutions around a radically simple proposition: eat less beef. Some possible resolutions:
- During your weekly shopping, substitute chicken, pork, or fish for beef. Better yet: beans, pasta, or veg.
- Spend the few minutes necessary to figure out the provenance of your non-beef meat, and find a convenient source of stuff that isn’t evil.
- Read anything by Michael Pollan. If your Pollan library is full stocked, start working your way through Taras Grescoe.
- If you cook, learn one new vegetarian entree per month.
- If you don’t cook, start. Make one dinner per week from scratch. No burgers.
- Pick one day a week to go fully veggie.
- Or go completely meatless for all your lunches.
- Etc.
Idea #3: downgrade your gadgets
I hesitate to post this, because, well, it smacks of treacly feel-goodism. But anyway: I recently lost my spiffy web-enabled cell phone. I replaced it with a comically out-of-date, refurbished flip phone, with the intention of riding out the last few months of my service contract and then getting a shiny, shiny iPhone.
Here’s the heartwarming bit. Since switching to the junky, used phone, my quality of life has gone up appreciably. Turns out that when you’re stripped of mobile email and web, your heart rate decreases, you have more serendipitous encounters with puppies and wonder-filled children, and your bursitis goes away. I miss the mapping functionality of my web phone, but I find the survival skills I honed during my pre-mobile-internet years slowly returning.
So no iPhone for me. The key to this act of voluntary simplicity was making it involuntary. Resolving to spend less time stating at little screens never would have worked.
Do you have a love-hate relationship with any electronic encumbrances? Now is as good a time as any to cast them off (read: recycle them). The environment may or may not benefit, but your pocketbook probably will, and your sanity almost certainly will.
No Impact Man, Elizabeth Kolbert, and the civic sphere
Throwing out the throwaway economy
Our addiction to cheap stuff has become very expensive, new book argues
Comments
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Angelsnecropolis Posted 2:13 am
05 Jan 2009
Shouldn't this be the other way around? Substitute beef for chicken, pork, or fish?
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Matt G Posted 2:55 am
05 Jan 2009
Of course, eventually you can switch to tofu or beans. But I've heard more than one omnivore say "eeew, tofu", so it's better to start slow.
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mihan Posted 3:16 am
05 Jan 2009
The more electronic gadgets you have, the more you "have to" buy, and the more energy you use.
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spaceshaper Posted 9:41 am
05 Jan 2009
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
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biodiversivist Posted 1:06 pm
05 Jan 2009
Next time you want something, ask yourself if it is for the status, and if so, consider finding a more environmentally benign way to advertise your prowess. Reverse status can be very effective.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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thinkdharma Posted 2:32 pm
05 Jan 2009
Grist has got to get integral! We are humans - we have exteriors AND interiors. Speak to people's interiors (how these choices make you feel in body and mind). That is how you move people.
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kmp Posted 1:28 am
06 Jan 2009
Clearly food, or the growing or raising of our nation's food supply, has significant impact on our environment, and hence is a natural topic on Gristmill. And since we all eat, we all tend to have fairly strong feelings on the subject of what to eat and what not to eat.
But let me reiterate: Grist is an environmental website. Therefore, the suggestion that an individual should modify his or her diet in order to decrease the overall environmental impact (i.e. lower his/her carbon footprint) of said diet seems perfectly logical, and in fact, more relevant, than any other reason for making modifications to one's diet, in this particular blog.
I'm all for discussing food; it's one of my favorite topics. I can debate the relative merits of one diet vs. another until the cows come home (ha!) but there can be no denying that any discussion of food or diet here on Gristmill that does not focus on the environmental impact of said diet would seem out of place.
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sterowas Posted 3:26 am
06 Jan 2009
Like most Americans who consider unfermented soy products as a protein replacement when they dissavow meat, you're poisoning yourself and taking decades off your natural lifespan.
The soy industry has scammed the public for decades just like the aluminum industry scammed us on the alleged benefits of flouride.
Like fluoride, soy in the unfermented form, is a powerful nuerotoxin and hard to detoxify from our bodies.
Even if one stipulates that unfermented soy is a healthy source of protein, vegan and veggitarian diets are very low in the folates we need and get from red meat, as well as the lipposuction omega six fat, CLA.
Even DR Gittleman, author of the fat flush plan recommends four ounce servings of meat at least daily. Egg and milk protein is another good source for the amino acids we need, but these are debunked by many vegan diets.
scott
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paz Posted 5:08 am
06 Jan 2009
May I add to your #2 recommendations the book "Full Moon Feast" by Jessica Prentice. A woman who tried a myriad of "wholesome" diets that just did not work for her, she finally hit upon an omnivorous diet that seems truly inspiring. (Eat local; eat seasonally; eat high-quality, truly free-range animal products). I am a rabid fan of all of the Michael Pollan books, but this may be the one that finally gets me off my duff and into the kitchen.
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