I doubt my parents realize it, but it's their fault that I consider myself an environmentalist.
I doubt they were thinking in environmental terms when they took me on hikes on the weekends and in the summer. Or when they planned vacations to mountains and rustic lakeshores and other naturally scenic places. It probably was more for economic reasons than anything else that they shopped almost every weekend at the local farmer's market. Or took me to actual farms to pick apples and strawberries and cherries. Or that we mostly only ate fruit and veggies that were in season. And it was mainly because of convenience, or maybe a sense of civic responsibility, that they started recycling as soon as our town started a recycling program.
But whatever their reasons, they did all of these things, and I watched and learned from their example. Most of all, I learned that we may not be able to solve the big problems, but we can all do little things that just might help out.
So today, my environmentalism is "small environmentalism". Because that's what I know how to do best. So I recycle and go to my local farmer's market and try to eat "locally" and "in season". I bring my own mug to coffee shops, and my own bags to stores. I walk when I can and consolidate driving trips when I can't. I compost. I've started to consider packaging when I buy something (I don't always do great with this, but I'm trying).
Some people say that saving the environment or stopping climate change is too hard. Maybe so. Maybe in the end small things won't matter. But I like to think that every little bit helps. And so I keep doing what I'm doing and hope that what I do will inspire others to do the same. Baby steps to a better planet.
3 comments:
It's off topic Jane but since it might be useful to you, did you see this:
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms.html
The authors made the whole thing available online. How nice! And for anyone reading this who has lots of money, be sure to actually buy the book when it is in final form. You know, got to support those starving artists, um, CS professors lest we all find ourselves back in the caves. Who can live without them these days? :->
You just inspired me Jane. See, I had thought about bringing my own coffee mug to a coffee shop but I thought, "No, that may be too much." But since I read that you do it, well, I'm going to try to remember to bring my own mug instead of use a paper cup provided by the coffee shop when taking coffee to go.
As for the grocery bags, I already do that and it pleases me to no end to stand in line with my reusable cloth bags (hundreds of times without so much as a tiny hole in the cloth bags needing repair) while others are actually paying to purchase plastic bags into which they pile their groceries. Yes, I do smirk inside at that. Just a little. I should be allowed that much at least.
anon #2, I did feel a bit weird the first time I brought my own mug, but I quickly got over it. (Plus some places will give you a small discount if you bring your own mug, which is nice!) And feel free to smirk internally---I do too!
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