Giving a damn about the planet is a luxury. At a minimum, it means that you have 1) access to necessary information, and 2) the time and emotional energy to invest in a cause whose consequences are mostly abstract, unseen and unfelt in your daily life. If you’re starving and your children are dying of disease and [...]
Posts Tagged ‘environmentalism’
19 May
Replacing Consumerism
Recently, I did something that I’d wanted to do for a long time but always been too cheap/busy/timid/tired to: I signed up for a pottery wheel class. Monday night was my first class. I sat at the wheel up to my elbows in slip, clay flowing limpidly under my braced hands. You’d think that centering clay would [...]
11 May
Environmental Epiphanies
Were you swayed by a slow trickle of devastating facts and figures? Or can you trace your environmentalism to one major turning point? Although I grew up hearing about the three Rs and my parents were thrifty enough to make us tear paper napkins in half at dinner, I wasn’t particularly concerned until one incident [...]
22 Apr
On Earth Day: Think, Don’t Do
I’ve noticed that a lot of people have provided lists of things to do (or not do) on Earth Day this year. Since there are almost an infinite number of things you could do (today and any other day) to benefit the environment, I’m going to propose something a little different: This year, for Earth [...]
