Michael Pollan‘s got it all right in ‘Why Bother?‘‘, his long and well worth reading article in today’s New York Times. And puts back the responsibility for climate change right where it belongs. On I, on you, on us. Here is the part that really struck a chord with me:
If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioral change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand. (Just look at the market for hybrid cars.) Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture. Driving an S.U.V. or eating a 24-ounce steak or illuminating your McMansion like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience. Not having things might become cooler than having them. And those who did change the way they live would acquire the moral standing to demand changes in behavior from others – from other people, other corporations, even other countries.
All of this could, theoretically, happen. What I’m describing (imagining would probably be more accurate) is a process of viral social change, and change of this kind, which is nonlinear, is never something anyone can plan or predict or count on. Who knows, maybe the virus will reach all the way to Chongqing and infect my Chinese evil twin. Or not. Maybe going green will prove a passing fad and will lose steam after a few years, just as it did in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan took down Jimmy Carter’s solar panels from the roof of the White House.
Now, I need to be honest with myself, and all of you, and face up to all the reasons why I have not made more changes yet in my still very carbon polluting lifestyle. The impatience I shared in ‘Lots of Talk About Sustainability, Little Action‘ was as much about my own behavior as about the persistent apathy in my fellow Americans. Sure I have made progress compared with one year ago when I started on this journey. I have cut down my shopping to the bare necessities, mainly food. I am biking, and walking, and taking the train, more and more. I remember to turn off the power strip for my computer most of the times. I am planning my groceries a lot more efficiently. I do laundry only once in a blue moon, and save the dryer only for the small items. etc . . . One could say I am doing better than most.
Better than most is still not good enough. I know it. I am still letting my seventeen year old daughter drive her SUV, because ‘if she wants a new car, she’s got to buy her own, and the SUV is the only old car we can spare’. I still have not resigned myself to condemning the pool. We don’t heat it, but the filter goes on year round. I am still quick sometimes to grab the car keys, when ‘I am in a hurry’, or ‘it is too cold out’, or ‘it is getting dark’. You get the picture. The reality still has not completely sunk in.
On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 not bothering at all to 10 being 100% committed, I see myself as a 6. How about you?
La Marguerite 
I dunno how I’d rate my commitment. It’s not perfect, but nor is it dreadful.
I find the best way to ensure you don’t use something which you think is harmful is to get rid of it. The smokers who keep a spare pack in the underwear drawer find it harder to quit than those who toss it all out.
Get rid of your car and SUV and then nobody will drive them. Alternately, sell your car to your daughter – even if only for $1 – and then say, “it’s now yours, expenses and all.”
Like me, my woman has a car, but it’s her car. I didn’t help pay for it, I don’t put fuel into it or pay the insurance, and I only drive it as a favour to her – like when we went out to a party on Saturday and she wanted to be able to drink alcohol without worrying if she was passing the limit or not.
Because I think of the car as not mine, I don’t use it.
If you’ve a bit of an accounting streak, one thing you can do is to note the numbers; petrol bought, meat bought, miles on bike, that sort of thing. Decide which numbers you’d like to go down, and which you’d like to go up. It’s for this reason we have things like the riot for austerity calculator, ecological footprint and so on. I’ve a carbon emissions calculator xls if you really want detailed numbers. Or you could just say, for example, “I’ll account for fuel, electricity, natural gas and meat, tally them up for a season at a time. I’ll make sure that each season I use less than the last.”
So I suppose my conclusion is that it’s all about the way you think of things, and in fact whether you think of them at all in concrete terms. Abstract concepts like “live lightly” are a bit hard to follow, ours is a culture of numbers – even if they’re normally just money.
Currently, my whole life is dedicated to saving the world. For that reason, I don’t have a day job, because I think I can choose my goals better than anyone else could. So all my time is spend for a good cause.
Regarding my footprint, I think it’s pretty low. Obviously I don’t consume much because I virtually have no money. I live with my mother, in a house she also had when she lived alone. But I don’t miss it at all. Things you can buy just aren’t a match for things you like doing. I don’t need to commute, I don’t have to travel and I can bike around the city. My mother doesn’t own a car.
Nowadays, I tend to feel sorry for people who want to go on vacation. Their daily life can’t be that great. I hope that someday they’ll find happiness at home.
I’d recommend my lifestyle to any smart person who doesn’t have a family yet. However, I think that doing what you like doing seems almost unimaginable to most people. But I deeply believe that what you like doing is the best way to spend your time.
Since I’m not “employed”, I’m hoping that eventually what I’m doing gets recognized in such a way that I could afford to have kids. But I think I don’t want kids in a world where you need to go against your consciousness in order to have a proper income. But I’m sure I’ll be working from home.
I really like Pollan’s article. Who knows, I may even start growing vegetables myself some day. Right now, I quite like just picking up what I want in the super market. I do buy organic when possible, of course.
I’m really happy to see you quote this article because you seem to have a strong “if I don’t waste time doing small but time consuming environmental acts, I can spend that time better working on larger environmental projects” streak.
May this be the turning point for you!
Great Question! I would rate myself as a 7. The most difficult thing for me is when environmental behaviours cross cultural (or familial) mores.
I recently went on a trip to visit the two grad schools I couldn’t decide between. I had to eat out quite a bit, and I had to eat meat because most restaurants don’t offer viable vegetarian options for me. I also found it difficult to sit and eat alone in a restaurant, which would avoid all the packaging associated with carryout, because people really do stare at a girl eating alone.
I also find myself hiding my lifestyle from my family, because they are very conservative middle class folks. I don’t tell them things like I gave away my tv, or that I’m going to start vermicomposting. Things like biking to work are easier because they are exercise and economical also, and therefore easier to explain without having to bring up global warming which is a difficult topic in my family. My father is a denier of AGW of all things.
I completely agree with the notion that if you do it others will. I started a blog and website called Domino Theory and have received many stories from readers that say “I’ve been reading about what you are up to and I have become compelled to act.” We talk all day about why this happens, but I’ve seen it first hand. When fighting for a cause there are known and workable ways to create a chain reaction: I call it “Setting Big Things In Motion.” Check out my blog if you’re interested: http://yoherb.typepad.com.
Create post today. Keep up the good work.
Herb, I love the work you are doing, including the imagery and theory behind your Dominos project. This is really what we are talking about here!
JenRob, I was wondering. What do you think would happen, if you ‘came out’? Maybe your fears are simply that, just fears. Maybe others’ reactions may surprise you. I find it a shame that you are holding back from broadcasting all the wonderful changes in your life. What do you have to lose from trying it out?
Malva, you are absolutely right. One should actually not exclude the other. This is my big personal challenge. And most people’s challenge, although it takes different forms for different people. We all have our forms of resistance to change.
Meryn, thanks again for all your wealth of knowledge and for all you are contributing, here on this site and other places.
Kyle, as usual, I love how you cut through the clutter of thoughts and get down to the bare essentials. You are confronting me with the work to be done. Thank you . . .
JenRob, I’m also interested in hearing your struggles.
In my family, at least my mother’s side, it’s perfectly normal to be socially and environmentally conscious. What I find hard to explain is the hard stance that I take against current employment options. I get the feeling that they see me as a bum, just profiting from my family. I see it that I’m just trying to make the most of the opportunity I’m given in this life. I just might be one of the luckiest persons in the world. I don’t want to waste that. I’m feeling very grateful to be able to do this, and want to give my best. But perhaps when something’s not bringing in money, it’s not worth much? My mother accepts my choices, thankfully.
Herb, you’re doing really interesting work. I’ve just subscribed to your blog.
Thanks Marguerite, Meryn for your support. The main problem I would have “coming out” would be parental disapproval. They tend to think that liberals, environmentalists, artists, etc… “feel” too much, are overly emotional, and let it cloud their judgment. When I “come out” (which will happen in about 2 months when I move) my parents will think that I’m behaving “illogically” and “irrationally” and I’m therefore wrong. My desire to live differently will simply be my childish desire to rebel against society (which is hilarious since I’m 28 😉 ). It would be basically be a repeat of the scene when I decided to return to school a few years ago after finishing my B. S. in Physics and get a degree in Literature.
It’s not so much that I fear abandonment, my family isn’t like that, it’s more that I’m trying to avoid an argument, such as the one Meryn describes where he feels he has to justify his life to others.
But like I said, I’ll be moving in two months, so I’m not going to exactly be able to hide a box full of worms or the lack of a tv.
Very interesting JenRob. Let me tell you that – like most others here – you’re simply far ahead of others. It’s not a matter of taste, or something in your genes. People aren’t that different. Eventually, everyone will choose this. I’m only interested in how to speed things up. Most of the world is stuck in the past.
I don’t know about details like vermicomposting, but I just take that as an example as the outcome of deliberate research, suiting your personal circumstances.
I want to compliment you with your choice of getting rid of your tv. It’s among the most biggest things holding people back. It’s both a time sucker and a brainwash.
That’s interesting to hear, Jen. In my case, I had parental disapproval all the time growing up, so getting a bit more of it as an adult didn’t make much difference to me 😀
To ease the confrontation a bit, you might want to think about ways you can present your thoughts. For me, there are several aspects to a “green” lifestyle, several motivators for it.
– climate change
– fossil fuels are finite, and don’t renew themselves
– any waste, anything unproductive is bad
– it’s good to save money
– less stress and more leisure time
Any “green” thing you do is going to support at least three of those five, and probably four. So even if someone denies one of those reasons as valid, or even two, we’re still left with the other three or four.
So presenting it in that way, that there are five (or more) reasons for the way you choose to live, that might help moderate the confrontation a bit. Naturally they’ll focus on the areas they disagree with, “But X is nonsense!”, you can say, “even if that’s true, there’s still Y and Z, and the thing about Y is -” so you bring the conversation around to the areas where you agree, rather than keeping it in the areas of disagreement.
Have you seen the one tonne CO2 lifestyle, Jen? I point to it in this case not as a recommendation, but rather as an example of a “green” lifestyle which addresses those five things.
Where do you get your food from? Who makes your clothes? How do you keep warm in the winter? What materials did you make your house from?
Do you ever need any money? How do you get money?
Interesting lifestyle. Maybe you could describe how you manage it?
I have three feelings about “where I’m at” on the 1-10 scale. Call me schizophrenic!
Relative to where I used to be, I’m a 9.
Relative to my (probably skewed) understanding of where society is in general, I’m probably a 7 or 8.
But relative to my potential (not only regarding my own habits but also in relation to my hope/ability to make a larger impact), I’m a 3 or 4. I have that feeling that I could be (and need to be) much more effective in trying to do what I can to help “push” society in a more healthy direction. I need to move the 4 to at least a 9, or (I guess) die trying?!
Cheers.
What a great posting, especially for this time of the year when everyone is communicating and discussing the environment and what they’ll be doing for Earth Day. If we really want to make a change we have to live every day as if it were Earth Day. I truly believe that its the little things that really matter and if we can allow ourselves to focus on the little things all the other things will fall into place. I may have gotten off the subject a little, which is me and my commitment. I feel that my intentions are a definite 10, like many others, but my follow through is around a 6, maybe a 7 on good days. Isn’t that all that really matters, that we are trying, its alot more than many others can say. By the way, if you find a true 10 please let me know, I’d like to meet him or her.
That’s an excellent way to look at it, Jeff. Where are we on the grade curve?:)
Agree GreenPlanetz, that trying is very important. I will take a whole world trying, as opposed to a few completely green folks. The problem right now is very few people are actually trying, as evidenced by the Gallup survey that just came out.
A true 10? I think No Impact Man came very close in his experiment. I have not been on his site lately. Not sure if he is sustaining his zero carbon lifestyle.
The whole thread about parental approval, or rather lack of, was interesting to me. It made me think of the general climate most of us have grown up in, the car, gadgets, disposables, fast food, and mall culture. I think I have mentioned this before. I grew up in a small town in France where my parents were the only vegetarians. No TV, they were against immunizations, etc . . . I could not wait to leave to conform and be ‘normal’, eat meat, etc. It takes courage to not conform. And it is very good news to me, to see green getting more and more into the mainstream, even if under the guise of consumerism.
Jeff, I think you are alright. 🙂
Ody, it isn’t magic. 🙂 I live with my mother. That’s what I recommend if you’re single.
My mother has a really big house, but I can’t add that to my footprint I think. The house is here wether I live in it or not. It’s like buying used stuff. Using things that are already there is always better than getting something new, no matter how environmentally-friendly it was produced.
This house simply won’t go away any time soon. We either live in it, or not. You could argue that this house would be better suited for a whole family, and I’d agree. But I’m not at the point where I could convince my mother to move out of a house she loves and which she can easily pay for. And I admit that, now I live here, I also like the luxury of space. Like I said, I consider myself very, very lucky.
I do some babysitting which gives me some variety in my week, helps me to learn how to handle kids, and also earns me some money. Great deal, I think. 🙂
I always had enough money to buy everything I want, so I don’t really watch my finances. If I was living month by month, and my mother wouldn’t want to support my work by paying for things like food and electricity, I would certainly have to work more hours for money. I’m so glad that I don’t have to.
This might be confusing:
“I don’t consume much because I virtually have no money.”
“I always had enough money to buy everything I want”
Right now, my mother is paying for daily expenses, and since I got to understood life, I don’t really want anything material anymore.
I have bought lots of stuff in the past though, which I paid for through freelance software development.
For example, I’m having a Macbook Pro in front of me. I hope it won’t break. 🙂
Meryn,
Your life example makes me think we should do more with ‘housepooling’.
Kiashu, happy Earth Day. Regarding your question about the grade curve, I think the blog is very high, and I think the participants are (on average) very high.
Meryn, happy Earth Day. It sounds like you have a great situation. Congrats.
Cheers.
Well yes, Happy Earth Day to all of you. 🙂
Pfft, Earth Day! Bah, humbug!
Meryn, mate, seriously – get a job and stop mooching off your mum. At the very least you should be doing ALL the housework. Part of being an adult is a degree of independence and productivity. You can do more for society by productive work, earning and spending money and contributing revenue for the public good, than you can slouching about at home.
Also living with your parents as an adult you’ll never get laid. Nobody wants to meet the parents the first time they go out with you!
Kyle, you’re repeating what my father, and many others would say.
Money means nothing. The only thing that matters is what people are spending their time on. I’m trying to find the best way to spend my time. If that would coincide with an available paid position, than I would happily take it.
The only thing is, I’m really smart, know lots about the deep problems in society, and know for sure that if there were job descriptions which would let people work on those deep problems full time, the problems we face wouldn’t be here in the first place.
The problems were in are a result of the current system. The only way to solve it is stepping out of it. This problem will be solved largely by people spending their free time, following their consciousness. I maximize that free time.
Of course, some people might never learn how to manage themselves, but I have, from an early age on. I’ve been managing myself on quite complex matters from back when I was 15 or so. Now I’ve turned my attention to save the world. I can’t see what’s wrong with that. 🙂
As for dating, yes I know my housing situation is not ideal for that. But I’m not interested in dating at this moment. Like I said earlier, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to afford kids while saving the world. I’ve been in a relationship for more than two years, house, car, vacations and everything, so I think I’ve had my fair share. I’m focussed on other things now.
You may want to browse my del.icio.us bookmarks sometime. Try the “past” and “future” bundles perhaps.
Meryn, no need to defend yourself . . . You are following your heart and using your brain, and leading through example. There are many examples throughout history of great people who contributed lots and did not make money . . .