The Click and the Dread

Umbra on holiday shopping 4

Hi Umbra,

When it comes to holiday presents, does it really save energy and gas to order stuff online?

Rick G.
Manchester, N.H.

Dearest Rick,

Holiday gift time, everyone! Many of you have already begun shopping, I know, and I also know that my birthday, coming in early December as it does, adds to the gifting pressure for everyone.

For better or worse, e-commerce has taken purchase.

I wrote last year about the hung jury on online shopping, and then Oak Ridge National Laboratory came out with a bit more information for the 2007 holiday season. To review my belabored, but still accurate, hedging: Driving alone to shop is worse than having a few items shipped. But having something flown overnight is stupid. And "e-commerce" is new enough that all the eco pros and cons are still under evaluation.

ORNL, an arm of the Department of Energy, clarified the basics a bit further. They studied shopping patterns and related emissions, and their numbers were very clear. Thirty percent of holiday shopping was done online last year, and the result was equivalent to 63 percent of American workers staying home for a day. Nearly half a million metric tons of CO2 were avoided. In other words, we can feel good about the gas we save via online shopping. But!

While greenhouse gases are the most important consideration, they are not the only holiday pitfall. Throughout this holiday season, let's all try to practice common ecological sense. Keep it together, people (especially Christmas-celebrating people). Don't lose your cool in the upcoming frenzy.

How we shop is only one piece of the holiday puzzle. We need to plan ahead. Walk to shop if you can, or carpool. Don't get caught driving around and around at packed shopping malls so you can look for something, anything to buy your loved one. When shopping online, don't get into an Overnight Shipping situation, and remember to use conservation measures with your computer. (Turn it off when not using it, use the sleep function instead of a screen saver, and put all your computery accessories on a power strip, flipping that off at the end of the day.) While I'm preaching on holiday madness: Avoid crazy toxic vinyl decorations or anything disposable. Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!

In general, we need to be sensible gifters, steering clear of buying unnecessary, useless stuff. "Give experiences, not things," as they say in my county. Or give wanted things. Or make things for people, if they're open to it. Look at Grist's list of stuff-free gift ideas and our gift guides (start here) -- they are full of great ideas ranging from actual objects to ethereal concepts.

Best of luck for staying sane and low-impact during the upcoming preparations for SolstiQuaHaMas.

Tinselly,
Umbra

 

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Send your green-living questions to Umbra.

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

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  1. kayakpatty Posted 2:43 am
    19 Nov 2008

    What about shopping locally?I do a lot of shopping online for things I cannot find locally and I am glad to find out that it's generally good for the environment BUT don't forget about your local shops. A lot of cities have wonderful shopping areas to which you can walk, bus, or bike where you will find unusual, locally made items. You will also avoid the craziness of the mall.

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  2. texasjenny Posted 4:23 am
    19 Nov 2008

    Food, food, foodFood is a great gift because it's useful (ya gotta eat!), it gets consumed (reducing waste) and you don't have to make a special trip to buy it (just get it when you are doing your regular grocery shopping).

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  3. wdisney Posted 12:07 am
    20 Nov 2008

    Holiday GiftsThe "Holiday" of Christmas has been historically the retail boon for our post industrial economy. It has not always been so. In decades past it was a celebration of a free gift from God of a Savior who loves us, and brought a way of life that leads to peace. The gift was celebrated with "Mass" or a Holy congregation, hence CHRIST MASS. Lore developed many ways to show "The GIFT" in physical forms and tangible objects mostly to help Children to understand "The Gift". The tradition came to overwhelm the truth.

    The celebration has been plagued with two great transitions, the spiritual into the physical and faith to tradition, which combined to give us the celebration of "pseudo sanctified consumerism" and a shift away from faith in the grace of the Divine.

     If we look back to the origin of the story in Luke chapter two we see "The gift" is referred to as Immanuel...that is "God with us", or Jesus. Understanding this should initiate a shift to "Be with" people to celebrate a divine gift instead of sending a less than complete representation of our esteem for the recipient.

    So, instead of buying some plastic prepackaged china made non durable good...bake some healthy bread or organic sweets and share the afternoon drinking fair trade coffee with someone whom your heart sees as valuable. Show them they are important by spending TIME with them. If that would happen humanity may actually increase in Peace, the amount of broken plastic that ends up in the land fill would be reduced. Be creative. Give a gift of a RELATIONAL experience, which is a gift.

    BE THE CHANGE.

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  4. Angelsnecropolis Posted 8:48 am
    07 Dec 2008

    Celebrate the people, not the holiday...I'm against most holiday celebrations because they've become a perversion of mass consumerism with no real personal meaning. They tell you Thanksgiving & Christmas is about being with family and therefore is special. But what makes it special to the individual? Cannot any other day of the year have just as much meaning? Why does our society see it fit to reserve just these handful of days as special and ignore the other days?
    If I buy a gift for someone it's because that person is special to me and has nothing to do with the day I give the gift.
    IMO, the celebration should be for the people and their personal meaning to us and not what day of the year it is. People shouldn't use holidays as excuses to give gifts or thanks while neglectig the other 360 something days you may or may not celebrate.

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