We've Got No Trouble When We're Livin in the Bubble

I've discussed the concept of eco anxiety, especially as a symptom of environmental information overload. But how far can you go reducing your output, especially when all you've ever known is a conventional mindset?

Although I've been environmentally minded since I was small, I have been pretty conventional in my thinking. Recycling is good. Not recycling bad. Buy second-hand or eco-friendly products when it suits your needs. Eat organic. I thought that I was taking a drastic step by deliberately giving up ownership of a car for the past three years.

But then I read No Impact Man: the Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process by: Colin Beavan and rethought how extreme could I be in reducing my waste output? Colin Beavan

took drastic measures to cut his carbon footprint to the point of seeing if he could reduce his waste output all the way down to zero. This includes no toilet paper. No elevators. Extreme measures.

I had a very conventional childhood- single family home, big front lawn, driven around in cars, etc., I never thought about how spraying chemicals on a lawn to keep it that pristine shade of green would get rinsed off and dribble down into the sewers or down into the water table. I didn't think how every time I got in a car it would generate greenhouse gas emissions or those cool rainbow colored puddles that you see after a rainfall on the asphalt parking lot (my favorite!) is bad because it's runoff from cars that stay on impermeable surfacing before eventually joining the pesticides and other chemicals that went off our lawns. That's just how things are.

And a lot of America feels the same way and live their lives the way I did. But what if we broke out of our conventional mindset? What if we all carried not only our own renewable bags, but cloth napkins, instead of taking handfuls of paper napkins and throwing them away five minutes later. What if we only ever bought second-hand clothes, books, appliances, etc.,? What if? ...

I'll be the first to admit that I love driving a car. I don't like being stuck in rush hour traffic. But I relish the opportunity to get into a vehicle that will take me wherever I want to go, to go zooming down the highway with nothing but a clear stretch of asphalt before me (and not a cop in sight)! I love paper napkins. I love toilet paper and escalators and the other modern conveniences of life. I don't like thinking about the trees that were cut down, the chemicals that were dumped into the tree pulp to soften it and mold it into a product that is soft enough to wipe away the ketchup smudge on my cheek. I don't like to think about all of the chemicals that were mixed to make the plastic heart bracelet that I love and wear four days out of the week on my wrist, next to my skin, its bright colors making me happy.

To change we have to take a good long look at the real impact even our most mundane daily choices have on our health, our time, our planet- all of which are irreplaceable. What do we throw away, what do we drive, how many appliances do we have running at a given time, etc.,

I'll be the first to admit that it's hard to break out one mindset, especially when you don't see anything inherently wrong with it. But when you see how big an impact even a small action, like leaving the water running while you brush your teeth and how many gallons of water it wastes over a week, a month, a year, it may spur you to take a different course.