Green Trigger
Oct 20th, 2006 by summer
One of the first questions people ask me in an interview is, “what made you interested in sustainability, what was the turning point?” There’s a long and a short answer, and the short is: I pretty much came out of the womb with a ‘save the whales’ t-shirt on. I’ve always been interested, or mindful about the earth. I even took my teenage angst out on gross polluters, waving my fist and yelling, “get a smog check!”
Melissa, of LA Green Living, and I were talking about what turns people green. We came up with one “green gateway drug” that we see quite often – health. Melissa gave the example of her family member who had cancer and while recovering, she decided – no more chemicals. My sister-in-law is currently looking for earth friendly detergents because BTC Niece has eczema.
I’m interested to know why other people are getting a little greener. Was it Al Gore, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, a friend, motherhood, or maybe green bloggers raising awareness? Inquiring minds want to know – shoot me an email, or put it in the comments below.
I blame Siel. I’ve always been interested in green issues, but reading her blog pushed me to be more active about it.
In general, I’d think anything that impacts you personally. Be it actually meeting somebody who’s into green issues, health problems you and your family have, travelling the world and seeing how others live – without first hand experience green issues are abstract topics.
Groby! Good to see your post, and great meeting you the other night. I agree, it helps to have a personal connection. Some of my strongest moments of green clarity have been while either traveling or discussing environmental and social issues with friends.
BTW Siel is to blame for a lot of green happenings about town. I definitely use her blog as a green LA resource – just the other day I revisited her post about taking the bus to the airport (thanks, girl).
My moment of zen came shortly after my parents divorced. My dad’s side overall has more education, while my mom’s side is more blue collar (and of course, both sides rule). Growing up I could definitely see a difference in the way they consumed and ate, and it really bugged me. Still does, but now that I’m older it’s neat to be in a position to instigate change.
Good question Summer!
As you mentioned, my godmother’s bout w/ cancer and her decision to go vegan for a while definitely influenced my thinking on diet – both vegetarianism and veganism.
A bigger turning point for me was living in Guatemala – enjoying a simpler life in a beautiful village, where my grocery shopping usually involved walking down a dirt path to a fruit and vegetable stand to see what was in that day. I had no refrigerator (I did have a gas stove), so I ate whatever was fresh that day.
But I also saw the horrible impact of “modern” conveniences, such as plastic bottles, bags, etc., in a country without the infrastructure to deal with them. Like, you know, no garbage pickup. Just throw it out the bus window when you’re done with it! Which worked when their packaging garbage was corn husks. (Of course, I realize now that WE don’t really have an instructure that properly *deals* w/ our waste either.)
Also, the issue of access to clean drinking water (I – like most foreign visitors- could afford to fill up 5-gallon water jugs w/ drinkable water), how everyone got sick when the rains started in May b/c they washed down all the garbage and human and animal excrement into the lake, and many other issues.
Unlike my lifestyle in the states, where I was fairly insulated from both the joys of contact w/ nature and the consequences of my own actions (my waste, energy use, etc.) – I came face to face with it in Guatemala. And I’ll always be very grateful for the many ways in which my experience there helped me to wake up – to both the joy of living more closely aligned w/ nature and to the harmful impacts when we don’t.
To be honest, I just hadn’t thought much about it. That is until my lovely wife started (ever-so-nicely) pointing these issues out to me. After a while, I just kind of said “This makes sense”…and I’ve been getting greener by the day ever since!
Christine – interesting for the comment. I agree, parents definitely (for better or worse) contribute to one’s greenness. Mine sure have.
Melis – thanks for more info on your Godmother. Also, your experiences in Guatemala! The experience definitely sound life changing. Isn’t it convenient when we don’t have to even think about or see where our garbage is going? And also to have clean water coming out of the tap. Our disconnection in the states makes it easy to forget that much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water.
Everytime I travel, my perspective changes a little too. I bought my last bottle of water when I was in Chile. All they served was bottled water. Never tap. Pretty silly considering some of the purist water in the world was dripping off glaciers not far away (we would literally fill our canteens up with river water while hiking), and there we were at a table with six plastic bottles of drinking water (sin gas). So wasteful. It’s crushing to see the bottled water industry make gobs of dough while many countries would be so appreciative to have our tap water. Now I say go tap or go home.
BB – Do I know you? =)