On a snowy winter morning five years ago, after four days of cocooning in the hospital, I walked home carrying my newborn daughter. I knew I was crossing the threshold into life as a mother, caregiver, and working parent. What I didn't know was that I was about to become a different kind of environmentalist.
It took just a few blocks to transform my environmentalism from one based on vehement philosophical and political beliefs to one grounded in the humility of everyday experience. And it took just a little while longer for me, armed with a newfound sense of constituency, to realize the potential power of mothers to change the world as we know it.
Oh baby, baby, it's a wild world.
Since college, my concern for the planet had been driven by idealistic beliefs: Every child should grow up in a healthy, thriving community with clean air and water, great public schools, and adults who care about them. We should support walkable communities and stop driving so much, polluting the air, and developing farmland while city neighborhoods are left to die. Governments and companies should invest in the cleanest technologies possible, instead of holding on for dear life to polluting ones that save short-term bucks and create long-term costs. You get the idea.
In my daily life, I made choices aligned with my values, from composting to letting my driver's license expire; from obsessively lowering the thermostat to choosing to live in a multiracial, mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhood. The last choice is what made it possible for me to walk to the hospital, in labor, when my first child was born, then walk back with my baby in tow.
After I carried home that six-pound bundle of alert eyes and chubby thighs, the activist in me began to morph into something altogether different. As I waded through the shoals of sleep deprivation, my environmentalism became less about ideas and opinions, and more about practicalities and concrete concerns. With the birth of my second child -- another walk-up delivery -- my convictions only strengthened. I was petrified by the vision of microscopic toxins creeping into the cells of my two vulnerable babies, then lying in wait to diminish their lives.
Environmentalism was no longer a general belief wafting in the ether of my life, but an absolute operational imperative. I had cared about sustainable agriculture before having kids, but now I was hypervigilant about buying organic produce and dairy. Instead of letting the scrubbing bubbles do the work for me, I huffed and puffed to clean the tub with baking soda. My kids begged for fluorescent-blue Bugs Bunny toothpaste, but got stuck with the natural variety instead. And occasionally I flew into fits of mild hysteria over minor infractions by my less-than-vigilant spouse. (Of course, as a working mother with a husband who travels, I also came to a much deeper understanding that consumer choices are not always about commitment to progressive values. Every harried parent in the world knows that good intentions cower in the face of reality, and we do whatever we must to get through the day; if it means using disposable wipes or letting kids go through a sheaf of paper to keep them occupied, well, that's life.)
As I weaved and bobbed toward this new way of living, I realized I couldn't be the only one. If the authors of "The Death of Environmentalism" are right that connecting to deeply held values is the way to voters' hearts, I have advice for environmental leaders across the land: start talking to mothers!
Now, I know some people think those of us who are parents are leading the march to environmental ruin by overpopulating the globe. But the reality is people are not going to stop having children. And if mothers could transform the nation's consciousness around the issue of drunk driving, think what they can do for the environment. If one mother could change the face of Love Canal, think what a mass movement could do for the country.
If mothers in the wild will do anything to protect their young, imagine the political power of mothers across the land driven by the obsession to protect their children, to create the best possible communities and opportunities for them. Since women hold an overwhelming percentage of household purchasing power, what kind of economic forces would be unleashed through their enthusiastic support for sustainable and child-labor-free products? How might a more holistic, mom-friendly definition of "environment" -- one akin to the environmental-justice movement's understanding of it as the places where we live, work, play, learn, and worship -- contribute to the framing of these issues?
Soccer moms may be a desirable demographic, but enviro moms could be a constituency with a mission and a message: Create a better world for my children and our communities, fast, or I'll kick your (political) butt.
I don't mean to leave concerned fathers out of this equation. At the moment, however, mothers are a political constituency largely ignored in this battle -- despite the solid presence of women as volunteers and staff members in the environmental, sustainability, environmental-justice, and conservation movements. If the leaders of those movements can demonstrate to all mothers -- not just upper/middle-class, white, suburban ones -- that an environmental agenda is about making their kids and communities safer, healthier, and more likely to thrive, there are millions of moms across the U.S. who could carry the banner of activism.
These leaders may think they're already speaking our language, but it's not coming through. The messages that do translate are simplistic. My best friend is a progressive mom who does exactly what she hears the green movement asking her to do: recycles her bottles and cans. If there is something else enviros expect from her, she ain't hearin' it. And the big values-driven, political train enticing her to jump aboard is nowhere in sight.
So what's the best way to kick-start this new movement? Well, mainstream environmental groups should take advantage of their funding and visibility to help families understand why these issues matter. But ultimately, a mass movement of moms needs to be started by moms -- just as Mothers Against Drunk Driving was, on its way to changing laws in every state in the nation.
The one large-scale effort I know of along these lines, Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet, seems to have closed up shop. While that group did admirable work educating parents and communities about environmental choices, its focus was on consumer products and the home. I believe it's time to move to the next level. A new, politicized, national movement could contribute to reshaping and reframing environmentalism to appeal to broader constituencies -- including, but not limited to, those with maternity clothes in their closets.
Five years ago, I took a walk that took me a few blocks and a world away. On this Mother's Day, I salute my fellow travelers on the grueling and life-altering road of motherhood. We may occasionally be haggard, grumpy, and multi-tasked near death, but I believe we hold a key to environmental victory.
Now if only one of us had the energy to get this thing started.
Seventh Generation launches anti-toxics campaign with wee gimmick
Ask Umbra on replacing hot-water heaters
The fight to save childhood
Comments
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melanie Posted 8:58 am
06 May 2005
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kookie Posted 11:09 am
06 May 2005
We just have to help moms PRIORITIZE those compromises to best suit the earth. That means we need to be relevant to be heard. Maybe for Mother's Day, if each mom were to be earth-friendly and relevant to just one other person, and if that were to happen every year, we'd have the planet covered in time.
And, let's not forget: Father's Day is just around the corner.
It'll take every one of us, doing and modeling what is right and do-able, to effect real change. What better gift to give Mother Earth in a couple of days?
Take the challenge; pass it on; there's nothing to be lost in trying.
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chadonbeni Posted 9:59 pm
06 May 2005
showed for every 1000 pounds of mercury released a Texas county, there was also a 43% increase in special education services and a 61% increase in the autism rate.
The scientists point out that this does not prove that there is a causal link. That will be the next step.
Another study (LA Times April 3) by the University of Arkansas showed that autistic children have abnomally low levels of an anti-oxidant called glutathione that among other things, is "crucial for neutralizing toxic metals such as mercury".
Is there a single person out there who does not know a family affected by autism?
School districts are really struggling to deal with the costs of educating these children.
Once these children are grown, who will pick up the cost burden of their transition into society?
This is a genuine crisis that touches everyone, on a very personal level for some, but on a financial level for everyone.
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kookie Posted 10:32 pm
06 May 2005
Rather, you need to be relevant and simple. What actions, specifically, do you want moms/people to take? How will this affect their children, the food they eat, and their pocketbooks? ...in defensible terms that EVERYONE can understand.
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earthdaughter Posted 11:37 pm
06 May 2005
I am here and I have the energy.... feel free to contact me....so as I said...let's get this party started.....Happy Mother's Day to Mother Earth and all us human mothers trying to make a difference......
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kookie Posted 12:30 am
07 May 2005
Angela rocks.
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enrique Posted 3:52 am
07 May 2005
Surfers Healing, a non profit dedicated to bringing
autistic kids to the beach for a theraputic day of surfing. Founded by former surf champion Izzy Paskowitz and his extended clan of relatives and friends. If you want to meet fired-up people, spend a day with parents whose children suffer from a deblitating disease. The grassroots organization has considerably raised the level of awareness in So Cal simply by providing a service that parents and kids seem to love. Subsequently, there's also been a HBO documentary and ABC has optioned their lifestory for a TV drama.
http://www.surfershealing.org/
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Japhet Posted 2:35 pm
07 May 2005
Even more ironic perhaps, is the connection between this campaign, targeting Ford Motor Co. and the previous post on Ford and GM. With Ford and GM stock tanking the right amount of persuasion could help them make the change for a greener, healthier future.
Check it out and pass it along. A message from a mother is hard to ignore.
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earthdaughter Posted 9:44 pm
07 May 2005
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amazingdrx Posted 2:26 am
08 May 2005
An ominous sign for young humans exposed to mercury too?
Keep fighting moms!!
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amazingdrx Posted 2:33 am
08 May 2005
Mercury pollution, oil wars, and radioactive contamination are not good for "children and all living things".
Was that phrase from an anti-war poster of a past era? It's still a good one. Fight the power!!
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amazingdrx Posted 3:28 am
08 May 2005
wd/index.html?offset=53735&page=previous
rigmarole4 - 1:12 PM ET May 8, 2005 (#50764 of 50776)
Happy Mother's Day to all- even the mothers whose children grew up to be Republicans!
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Lee Posted 6:26 am
08 May 2005
Moving forward. I have been very interested in the pschycology of change, because I have been wondering how to get the other mothers around me to see the errors of their ways, as it were. Of course, dividing into us and them is the first wrong step. As I looked at the change process, I laughed at the wisdom I was given in business school. "You have to get customer/client/employee buy-in, then it will work." It turns out to be much more complicated! Change of this magnitude requires transformation - a shift in our values to where doing the right thing gives us better feedback than continuing on our current path.
How do we as mothers first attract attention to the pressing causes, then provide a blueprint for a life that lives out the optimal choices? Put more simply, how do we reach the blue ketchup mothers (and the Glad Plug-Ins, yuck) and give them an experience that enlightens? We can not alienate, nor dictate.
I believe that every mother who is trying to do right for her child is reachable by this movement. So many of my friends who know my "different" lifestyle respect it without wanting to change. Much of it is fear of being different. Advertisers have taught us that if we don't use the new improved Clorox wipes in our bathroom, that our friends will think we are gross and dirty. That is a powerful force, one we have to overcome through education and good role models.
My post groweth too long, I must conclude. A blueprint for making changes exists in the form of Flylady, a guru for cleaning/uncluttering your home. She has a following of over 250,000 people who are learning, one habit at a time, to change the way they live. Many of her teachings are already green, I think they can go greener. And it is a wonderful model for motivating people through encouragement, not fear.
I hear your rally cry, Angela Park. We are out here, waiting to organize.
Lee
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rglick Posted 12:38 am
09 May 2005
RG
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amazingdrx Posted 1:17 am
09 May 2005
By breaking it up thusly...
...even breaking some rules of syntax..one gets their attention further down the article.
Keep up the good fight! Blue ketchup is a vegetable? Hehehey.
Oh put up your site address too please!
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amazingdrx Posted 1:23 am
09 May 2005
http://amazngdrx.myblogsite.com/blog
Hehey. Don't get discouraged, just because we face impossible odds is no reason to give up!
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amazingdrx Posted 2:39 am
09 May 2005
Eventually the villagers, pitchforks and firebrands in hand, will come to Rovenstein's castle for these monsters.
New democratic party leaders must be ready to turn them to more constructive tasks. Clean energy policy, economic recovery, peace, and prosperity..nenewing american democracy and reinstituting the US constitution as the law of the land.
The reign of bushco inc. will be but a grade D horror flick in the minds of most...a few years after demcracy is restored.
The task of the reform party will then be to not let them forget history..or we will have to watch them repeat it all over again!
How many Reagan/Bush reactionary devolutions can this mother earth withstand? Let's not try to push it and find out!
http://www.actionforum.com/forum/scores.html?comment_id=221456
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MAM Posted 8:36 am
09 May 2005
Rosemary
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graci Posted 12:45 pm
09 May 2005
I too have a message board and most of my enviromental issues barely get read? I feel everybody thinks (there she goes again) and these are important issues. This Planet is a "Terminal Planet" and we have the resourcses and alternatives to fix it, but this thing we have as a President and this Adminastration we will have nothing but a toxic planet to leave our decedants, if that much.
I would like to see your BBS sometime, but I don't kown if we are allowed to give links here or not as this is my first post.
graci
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melanie Posted 1:47 pm
09 May 2005
Sorry about the lack of paragraphs - I tend to be on here at work and so try to write FAST to get off fast. ;) So I didn't bother with editing!
And I LOVE the MAM idea, that's cute... now, who wants to really do that? Somebody email me, I'm SO down with helping to start that group!!
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melanie Posted 1:48 pm
09 May 2005
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jessicamarshall Posted 7:55 pm
09 May 2005
But to really have an impact, we need to begin going for the big-money media. What ever happened to the ad with the guy in the canoe with a tear rolling down his cheek? Give a hoot don't pollute? I might have wanted to grow up to be a hippie when I was a kid, but I got the idea from television. If there were a coalition of Moms in the Media Against Amoral Corporate Control of All Programming, we might really get something going.
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MAM Posted 10:40 pm
09 May 2005
My idea (MAM) is more a grassroots lobbying organization to advocate for public health and safety against the coal industry. My eldest son is autistic and I live in sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are being destroyed by acid rain.
MAM could certainly have dynamite heartwrenching ads on tv. Imagine a shot of a cute little 2yo boy doing something strange over and over and his mother calling him and not getting an answer. Voiceover begins, "Colin was a happy baby who loved to play peekaboo. Now...."
Rosemary
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Japhet Posted 5:58 am
10 May 2005
As a longtime organizer I would just throw one piece of advice into the discussion circle here. The environmental movement has for years been focused on working through the government and it seems to have been largely unsuccessful. However, working locally with businesses, schools and industries and creating local branches of volunteers with interested parties lays a fantastic root system for growth and expansion. It'd be so cool to have mothers connected by not just one issue but by a broad strategy that all agree on.
Just my 2 and half cents.
Keep the conversation going! Email this link to your friends!
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jessicamarshall Posted 5:24 pm
10 May 2005
Ideally the email could have a distinctive look, and anyone who passes it along would be entitled to become an official member of whatever the group is called, thereby earning the right to slap the very appealing logo/clever tag line onto all their belongings, and onto any holes in their children's clothes.
Whaddya say?
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MAM Posted 12:01 pm
11 May 2005
One thing I find frustrating as a mother is that I don't know which changes are most important. If we have so much money to spend this year, should be buy a hybrid or make the house more efficient? You know what I mean? Local produce or organic but shipped? If several of us worked together on it, we could take different kinds of tasks and do the research, write it up, send it to everyone.
Melanie is interested in this, too. What do you think, Melanie?
Rosemary
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Lee Posted 4:54 pm
11 May 2005
I'm Lee, the Flybaby. My one concern with the tips was that it would turn into one more thing that we are not doing that we should do (as mothers). We tend to be a guilt-ridden group as it is. That's why I brought up the Flylady model. Her encouragement helps you get over the guilt and actually doing something. Her message about perfection (it's a bad word!) is also relevant.
I think we could definitely put together some fridge tips that keep it positive (do what you can, little things add up to big things). Center for a New American Dreams has a similar approach, but not geared just to moms. They also have a neat set of stats (replace one lightbulb with fluorescent, save x pounds of pollution). These facts help people visualize why little changes add up.
We could draw out a rough road map, similar to FL, that has something you can start the day you join, then build on that, until you have those changes under your belt. Also, a call to action can be part of each message (again, CNAD idea) where you can spend a few minutes (write congresspeople) or more (organize neighbors).
Finally, I'm all for humor for getting across the message. Any cartoonists out there?
Obviously I'd like to contribute, what are our next steps to getting organized?
Lee
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jessicamarshall Posted 6:52 pm
11 May 2005
I'm sure we could get the input of the top-ranked people in whatever field we're working in re most meaningful changes, etc. It's just a matter of putting in the - aaaargh - time.
Should we choose a topic and see what we can pull together? I can put some work into it, dig up some art options, and send it around for reworking/rethinking/trashing.
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Shalini Ramanathan Posted 6:55 pm
11 May 2005
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Lee Posted 8:28 pm
11 May 2005
Lee
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amazingdrx Posted 10:47 pm
11 May 2005
i=5070
"But what if just the opposite is true? What if parenting really isn't a zero-sum, children-take-all game? What if raising children is actually mentally enriching for mothers - and fathers?"
"This is, in fact, what some leading brain scientists, like Michael Merzenich at the University of California, San Francisco, now believe. Becoming a parent, they say, can power up the mind with uniquely motivated learning. Having a baby is "a revolution for the brain," Dr. Merzenich says."
Mothers are less likely to support wars, ecocide, and armageddon for their children's future? Does that qualify as mental advancment? Yes.
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amazingdrx Posted 10:57 pm
11 May 2005
0
"The poems in "Incantations" incorporate ancient metaphors with the harshly contemporary. One poem, by Xpetra Ernándes, is "Witchcraft for Attracting a Man":
I want him to come with flowers in his heart.
With all his heart,
I want him to talk to my body.
I want his blood to ache for me
when he sees me on the way to the market."
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amazingdrx Posted 11:11 pm
11 May 2005
Now this is environmentalism on all levels simultaneously!
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melanie Posted 12:00 am
12 May 2005
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Lee Posted 3:35 am
12 May 2005
So glad you (all) are interested! I have been thinking about this for quite a while and I'm ready to get moving.
I can set up a group tonight called Flying Green. This is not a name suggestion, but just a moniker to get us set up for communicating.
I'll drop a post later when it's up. I'm 6 hours ahead of EST since I'm in Germany, so evening is already here and my kiddo will soon be in bed.
Lee
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David Roberts Posted 4:00 am
12 May 2005
http://groups-beta.google.com/
And I think it's great what you're doing! Keep us posted.
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Lee Posted 5:36 am
12 May 2005
Join us at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Green-Living if you are interested in discussing our next steps for this project.
Once we're over there we can get the moderator/administrator stuff straightened out.
Note the inadvertent name change. I'm coming off a 30 minute tantrum (my son's) hence the segue.
Lee
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MAM Posted 6:04 am
12 May 2005
Rosemary
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amazingdrx Posted 7:49 am
12 May 2005
All our kids' futures are surely a great motivator for change!
Let's have a revolution!
Low impact, low consumption, high quality lifestyles featuring internet political action in order to deal with the frustration of watching corporate degradation of mother earth.
If the neo-conservative corporate forces don't get our cash, our minds, our souls,or our kids how can they win?
If even the half of US who oppose the bushco inc agenda reduce consumption of corporate produced products to a minimum, what would that do? Our 401ks are already stolen, so do stock markets really matter?
By using the net for political action and pushing reform maybe we can even take back the democratic party from corporate shills and turn it into the reform party it really ought to be.
It's a long shot I admit, but it's better to fight an almost hopeless battle than give up. If for nothing else, one's own health. The stress of hopelessness is a debilitating factor that robs from quality of life.
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Japhet Posted 8:53 am
12 May 2005
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