Adventures of a Fortysomething: The Making of an 'EC' Mom
All that our fortysomething has learned about being "environmentally correct," she's learned from her kids--sort of.
Jeanne Faulkner is a freelance writer and registered nurse in
Portland, Ore. Her work appears regularly in Pregnancy and Fit
Pregnancy, and she has contributed articles to the Oregonian, Better
Homes & Gardens, Shape and other magazines.
Apparently, I suck. My carbon footprint is as big as Sasquatch's. I'm a gas-guzzling, plastic-hogging, carbon-spewing fiend that should be banished to the landfill for all eternity. This is what my environmentally correct (EC) high school- and college-aged kids have taught me about environmentalism. Everything they've learned about being EC they learned from their oh-so-enlightened friends and college instructors and, of course, from Al Gore. That's right--they've seen his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." And I haven't. Therefore, I'm an idiot and they're brilliant. But, then, anyone raising teenagers knows that.
Frankly, I'm surprised at how lame I am. I thought I was doing pretty well. Sure, there's room for improvement, and as soon as I can afford a new car I'll buy a hybrid. But in a family of six, (two parents, two "adult" kids and two little kids), we only own two cars. We also own six bikes, carpool, cluster errands and walk as much as possible.
Recycling? We have six bins that we fill up every single week. We've been recycling long enough that we've worn out a bunch of them. It's true that once in a while I'll toss a dog food can inadvertently, but ever since my EC education--brought to me by my children--I've been working on that. My EC kids are all about recycling. They check the bottom of every box, bottle and can for the little recycling triangle and faithfully place them in the recycling bins. That's their part. Our part--since we suck--is to sort all the recycling every Sunday night and drag it to the curb for the garbage collectors to haul away. I can't remember more than once per kid when they've helped sort and haul, and that was only under duress. They certainly wouldn't volunteer for that particular recycling duty. But, then again, we suck and they don't.
This year I've purchased six water bottles--the good ones that can be reused countless times and withstand dishwashing. This was an attempt to decrease the number of disposable water bottles we pitch in the recycling bins. They're gone. All of them. Where? Heck if I know. They went to that mysterious place socks wind up. Gone.
How about that carbon-spewing? Some of the biggest sources of global-warming gases come from animals raised for meat consumption. Methane (cow gas) and petroleum products used for grain production to feed these rootin'-tootin' cows (and to feed chickens, pigs, etc.), and transportation of said critters accounts for a whole lot of ozone-scorching trouble. Methane is reportedly 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Anybody who's driven past a feedlot or dairy will attest to the truth in that.
I've been a vegetarian since I was 12. I've raised all my kids as vegetarians. My husband is a vegetarian. We do consume some dairy (except me and my husband, who eat almost none), eggs and fish. We eat whole grains, lots of fruits and vegetables (I buy locally and organic whenever I can afford it), and rarely do we buy processed foods. My kids have never eaten Hamburger Helper. I thought that raising them with a high level of meat consciousness, awareness of the food chain and teaching them that the products we buy and consume have an impact far beyond our home, was pretty EC. But since I'm not vegan, I suck.
My college-girl decided to "go vegan" for her first year in college. OK, I'm mostly supportive, especially since she eats most meals at the college cafeteria. There aren't that many times in your life when you can make a big statement about your diet and totally stick to it. For most of us, once we get busy with jobs, homes, families--y'know, lives--we forgo some of our idealism for practicality. I pointed out that if we boycott all products that come from animals, we fail to support EC farmers--the ones who do dairy right; the chicken farmers who treat their little egg-layers humanely and recycle the chicken poop. Another daughter intermittently declares herself "vegan-for-a-week." That means a whole lot of special shopping, meal planning and extra cooking. But hey, what do I know? I've only been a vegetarian for 30-odd years. Veganism is way more EC. Even if it does cause a lot more household methane with all those lentils and other legumes.
Let's talk about energy consumption. We buy the gas for the cars they use. We're the ones buying the florescent light bulbs and following the kids around the house turning off lights, unplugging appliances and turning down the heat. I got up in the middle of the night once this week, having gone to bed hours before the teens did. Sure enough, the family room, kitchen and porch lights glared away. I clicked them off and made a mental note to pay the electric bill--the one where we pay a little extra for "green" energy.
There's no doubt about it, I've got a ways to go until I'm totally EC. It's my goal, really it is. It should be all our goals. If you need any ideas as to how to be greener, try to find a couple of hours to watch "An Inconvenient Truth"--it's on my list of things to do this week. If I don't find the time, I'll just ask my kids. They'll tell me how it really is. 'Cuz they're EC and I suck.
wow great writing. I am recycling
Posted by: mike | October 30, 2007 at 03:57 PM