For many years, my revolutionary emblem has been a canvas grocery bag.
I bought my first canvas grocery bag 20 years ago. In that time, it has been to the grocery store twice a week, replacing over 2000 paper or plastic bags. It holds more than a paper grocery bag, it has convenient carrying handles, and it’s rugged and durable. It can hold swimsuits and towels, a snack for the park, library books, or a contribution to a potluck supper.
Empty, it holds a message from the first green revolution. “The solutions,” it says through its unbleached wrinkles, “are simple. They are within your reach. They are in the dozens of daily decisions you make, and in your willingness to see how the choices you make affect the rest of the world. You have power. Your choices matter. You can help create the world you want to live in, or you can contribute to the misery of humanity.”
I think this is a message we need now, when so many people feel so powerless. We need to fight on the national and state level, and, at the same time, we need to pay attention to the small things we can do in our daily lives that can make a difference.
In the 70s, a lot of people were still committed to the ideals that we picked up during the 60s. There was a lot of counterculture blooming, and a lot of people working to grow the new, greener, fairer, more equal world alongside the old one. Over time, many people got tired, relaxed their ideals bit by bit, and bought SUVs.
There have been people who have been working patiently all these years, exploring green construction or cleaning products or solar power or recycling or better infrastructure design. Mostly, though, this country turned their backs on them and went shopping at Walmart.
It’s time to back away from mainstream culture, slowly, and go talk to the people who have been working on the blueprints for a better future. Time to reflect on the way we live and the way it affects the planet and the other folks who share the Earth. Time to get off the oil high and see where we can go on our own two feet.
What can I do today to make the world a better place?
You would not believe the hue and cry that went up when stores were threatening to charge for grocery bags. It’s the norm in Europe to do so. I don’t know where the initiative is now.
I have a whole collection of canvas shopping bags (‘cos sometimes 1 isn’t enough) that I haul with me to the various shops…I dunno what’s it’s like in the rest of the country – I live in a Brooklyn neighborhood just chock full of recyclin’, compostin’, organic-food-eating tree-huggers.
Per capita consumption per annum of paper in China is around 9 kilos. In the US its over 300 kilos. There are not enough trees in the world to supply 1.4 billion people with that much paper.
So get your canvas bag now! Hemp BTW produces much more fibre than any tree in a much shorter time. Sadly though, all existing methods of mass producing hemp fibre are highly detrimental to the environment. But the old methods of crushing and combing are safe.
But meanwhile, a tax on all plastic packaging would help.
“”Per capita consumption per annum of paper in China is around 9 kilos. In the US its over 300 kilos. There are not enough trees in the world to supply 1.4 billion people with that much paper.””
Fully half of this paper is forced on each of us every day through junk mail in our box, free newspapers thrown on the driveway, stupid fliers hung on doors and windshields, I get about seven different phone books/yellow pages delivered each year!
I do not buy any magazines, no matter how cheap, half of the pages are wasted on glossy ads. Anyway, they can be read online. Same goes for newspapers. I don’t buy too many books, I can go to the library. The one thing I do have to buy is sheet music/books, but that’s it.
Any ideas how I can cut down on paper spam in my mailbox?
Here in Finland, by law, you can put a notice on your door or mailbox that says ‘Ei mainoksia’ – meaning ‘no ads’. The producer of any such unwanted material (not the person who delivers it) becomes criminally liable. But it never happens, because nothing unwanted ever gets delivered.
People are allowed however to distribute papers etc in the street as handouts to anyone who will take them.
The only paper you’ll ever find tucked under your windshield wiper is a parking ticket.
Likewise stickers (sticky ones) are illegal in public places – you can be charged for their removal. Pinned up flyers and posters are tolerated, but tend to appear only on temporary structures like building site walls etc.
We used to have the same phone directory problem, but there are fewer and fewer fixed phones here these days. Most people either check numbers on Internet sites (from their mobile) or call one of several competing number enquiry services. They connect you and also upload the number and address etc to your mobile as SMS.
Oh dear – we are such a law abiding bunch!
Thank you.
When I think of the huge environmental problems we are facing, I get overwhelmed. Your diary was a good reminder of the importance of DOING something in my personal life.
I was wondering about discussing with the editor of our local paper a weekly column on what we each can do.
Do you have any recommendations for a reliable source of information? Sometimes I have read about doing something a more environmentally safe way, then discover that the alternative is just as bad though in a different way. My response tends to be “AAAAAAHHHH!” Then I throw up my hands and go back to doing what I was doing.
I don’t think people so consciously turned away from what they were doing. There was considerable commercial and media bombardment for new products, often promoted with fear, e.g., “germs” on kitchen cloths, so use paper towels, and promoted with convenience in mind, e.g., plastic cutlery.
I am wondering whether the environmental corollary to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” might be something like, “Live in a way that everyone on the planet could live just like you.”
A weekly column about what we can each do sounds like a great idea.
I don’t know of a single reliable source of information, but it’s always a good idea to check into the studies that show that the greener way isn’t greener. Sometimes, like in Proctor and Gamble’s study that “showed” that single-use diapers are every bit as environmentally sound as cloth, the studies are paid for by corporate interests with an axe to grind, and they don’t stand up to scrutiny.
There are a lot of environmental ideas that are just common sense, like Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Or walking and biking when you can. Or telecommuting or carpooling. Or cleaning your house with non-toxic cleaning products. Or replacing lightbulbs and appliances with more energy-efficient ones. Or wearing your clothes until they’re too full of holes to make good cleaning rags (my husband’s favorite). Growing your own vegetables. Buying organic when you can. Shopping locally. Buying locally grown produce. Supporting fair trade products.
Using public transit. Composting food waste.
I think one of the difficult things is finding greener solutions that fit your life. Green solutions don’t work well if you hate them, they’re awkward, or they’re a lot more work. I remember when we finally got curbside recycling here. Before, it was so much work to sort everything into its different categories and take it to the local recycling station. Now all we have to do is sort into different carts, and the recycling truck comes to us.