Being in Target sucks up all of my optimism about our species’ environmental progress. Kevin and I needed Seventh Generation washing up liquid, so we ducked in and promptly found ourselves amidst endless rows of shiny plastic things, clothing probably made in sweatshops, processed foods, and conspicuous overconsumption. And we realized: this is how mainstream [...]
Posts Tagged ‘individual responsibility’
21 Mar
Collective responsibility and being ‘wisely selfish’
This post is the unlikely intersection of three very different things: Thin Mints (chocolate mint Girl Scout cookies around which cults have been formed), the American Constitution, and the half-baked thoughts on picking up litter and individual vs. collective responsibility that I wrote about weeks ago. It started with the Girl Scout cookies. For a long time, I’ve known that palm [...]
14 Jan
Ending my romance with dollar stores
I have a confession to make: I used to like dollar stores. For this, as for many other things, I blame my parents. They immigrated to the US with virtually nothing and climbed their way into solid middle class respectability — without ever losing their immigrant mentality regarding money. This meant a number of things: [...]
1 Aug
Why shorter showers matter
I recently read a provocative article on Orion by Derrick Jensen called “Forget Shorter Showers: why personal change does not equal political change.” In a nutshell, he argues that the system is broken, and individual action to minimize impact isn’t going to make a significant dent in saving the planet. Instead of taking shorter showers, we should be lobbying, restoring habitats, [...]
30 Jun
Stop Blaming BP, Start Taking Responsibility
OK, BP screwed up. Seriously screwed up, and seriously screwed over whole ecosystems, species, careers, and local economies. For decades. I don’t wish to diminish the magnitude of how badly they screwed up, and am certainly not going to offer them an apology. However — and this is the point at which I get lynched — [...]
