so all sorts of green stuff is all about how small lifestyle changes can make a big impact on your life. and i'm sure there are lots of people that that is true for. but even with all the changes i make, nothing will make a big impact on my life, and that is because: i have a very small life. for instance: changing all the lightbulbs in my house to CFs will decrease my energy bills by 10%! well, that's wonderful. but the thing is, i only have (let me take a moment to go count them) 11 lightbulbs in my house. not counting the flurecent over the sink or the sewing machine lightbulb which is is like a christmas light. ten percent of my energy bill works out to like a buck fifty.
i'm getting frustrated by the green movement for two reasons right now.
1. suddenly it's trendy. not that that's a bad thing in itself, i want green to be important to everyone. but now it's this catchphrase, and instead of transforming popular culture, popular culture is transforming it. it's similar to how i feel about the beer companies cashing into the gays. i don't like to think gay liberation was about freeing us to be trapped into the same gender cliches the straights are. i'm not saying it well- i don't want to be free and accepted in their society- i want my own society. but this blog ISN'T about gay liberation. it's about ecological living. and i hate how the way to solve problems here in america is to buy things. and it seems to me that that's what the green movement is all about- buy the right cleaning supplies and the right vegetables and the right building materials for your house. buying bono's hip and trendy $50 t-shirt may be marketed as green, but you're probably gonna make more of an impact shopping at the brown elephant. i'm just saying. the thing i keep chanting is the fourth R. i read it on recycling chicago's web site, and i love it. people are all about recycling. but before you do that, you should make sure you can't reuse it for something else. and rather than have stuff around you have to reuse, you should reduce your consumption in the first place. but there's a new one! the whole thing should start out with RESIST! don't give into the temptation to get the newest, biggest, greenest thing! isn't that clever and inspiring?
2. i'm feeling, as i said at the begining, trapped by my small lifestyle. i feel like i've made all the little changes there are to make, and the big ones just aren't applicable to me. renting in the city. i am sick of being told how to save my grey water. no one has given me a useful thing to do with my greywater! my garden is aprox. 10 cubic feet of dirt. i am not going to be able to use all my greywater for "landscaping"! and i don't think my landlord would take very kindly to hooking my sink up to my toilet. i'm not going to buy a more energy efficient car, because i don't drive a car. i'm not going to build a more energy efficent house, because i'm not going to buy a house. i feel like there's no middle ground for people like me. you're either a "cloth napkin using, canvas bag carrying" hippie, or you're a "solar panel building, composting toilet owning, prius driving" organic gardner. i think that'w why i love my worms so much. cause they're something that's been adapted to my lifestyle.
here's what i really want: now that i've found a way to compost, i want a way to make my own energy. sure, i use rechargeable batteries. but there's that annoying sattelite dish the downstairs neighbors used to have. why can't i get a little solar blanket or something i can just plug into an outlet and throw over the balcony? why don't they make portable turbines, like box fans, i can set in my window? i've SEEN solar powered ipod chargers. you just unfold their little plates, plug in your ipod and set it in the sun. and there is a new messenger bag with a solar panel you can plug your ipod or phone into. i want some sort of gadget i can pull out of the closet, plug into my outlet, set the back weel of my bicycle into, and ride away the energy my computer's used today. especially in chicago, where 80% of our energy is nuclear, and the rest is coal. cause i realy use so little energy. it would be awesome to be able to make up for that.
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