My Plan - Eight Easy Pieces
I. Reduce my dependence on my car.
Action - Buy a bike and use my community's available mass-transit system as much as possible; I'm excited about this because a) I get to to buy a bike with eco-friendly 'forever tires' from Greentyres. I'm thinking pink with a bell and a wicker basket, and b) I'll get to meet new people on the train -- this might be a bit romanticized but for now I'm reminded of my younger days on the NY Subway when every train ride seemed like a departure into adventure. Wheeeee...
II. Reduce my dependence on A/C.
Action - Buy some standing and table fans and get new screens put on the windows. Again, I'm excited because I have an irrational 'thing' for vintage fans and so I get to do some antique shopping. eBay here I come!
III. Eat local foods.
Action - Find out about my local farmers' market and ask my local health food store to label local produce. I'm already a vegetarian so accessing fresh, local fruits and veggies sounds like a treat! Maybe I'll even write that cook book I've been mumbling about for years..."The Slow Urban Veggie Cookbook" anyone?
IV. Find, purchase, and use petrochemical-free products.
Action - Because it turns out that escaping a dependence on oil goes far beyond the issues of transportation, fuel, and plastics (see "Just Like Pelicans, People Can't Avoid Oil Either"), I will learn about petrochemicals in everyday products I depend on; and I will find alternatives. So far, I've found that there are sources online to make my entire bath and beauty regime 100% petrochemical-free. Check out these self pampering goodies:
- for a 100% petrochemical-free hair product (including no plastic bottle or cap) I found a jojoba oil-based shampoo from J.R.Liggett's Old Fashioned Shampoo Bar and/or a honey-based alternative from Burt's Bee's Rosemary Mint Shampoo Bar.
- for squeaky-clean karma, Taylor Made Organics offers vegan, cruelty-free, petrochemical-free face creams, cleansers, salves, balms, and moisturizers; Aubrey Organics offers a similar but more extensive line of organic petrochemical-free products.
- for more options, I will check my farmers' markets or local vendors for locally-made natural products; and ask for an ingredients list, when I find a product I like I will be a loyal customer and recommend the products in your community; and stay informed about cosmetics' ingredients generally via Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database.
V. Travel consciously.
Action - Buy 'Carbon Offsets' when I fly or travel long distances. I'm still investigating this but it looks promising. Additionally, I'll ensure all my journeys have a positive ecological or community impact. If I travel for personal reasons, I will volunteer locally or educate about our oceans as part of the trip.
And Blog about it.
VI. Protect my beach.
Action - Monitor the status and health of the lovely little beach behind my lab. It's not famous or pristine but it is nearest to me and I am going to walk its length once or twice a week, keeping it clean and looking out for oil and tar or distressed animals; and I'm going to photo-document any environmental changes. Another opportunity to be outside and near the ocean while taking responsibility. Done.
VII. Know my investments.
Action - Review my retirement plan. I have a standard corporate/university retirement plan comprised mostly of mutual funds which means I don't really know, exactly, what my money is invested in; not cool. I want my money to support 'green' companies that are investing in a sustainable, environmentally friendly future. This might prove the most challenging as it sounds a bit 'dry' but I know it is probably the most important. Consumer awareness combined with good corporate citizenship is clearly KEY (i.e. I won't sleep well at night until I know for sure that none of my retirement investments include BP stock!)
VIII. Stay open to new ideas and solutions; take personal and community action as necessary.
Action - Stay informed. I'm still learning about how to live my most sustainable life so I will investigate what options are available to be less dependent on fossil fuels; and, importantly, I'll share that information with friends and family...whether they want to hear or not. In short, I will advocate, actively, about the direct connection between the choices we each make everyday and their impacts on our oceans. That starts with 350.org and their Crude Awakening Campaign and Oceanic Defense.
This is more than a plan, this is my pledge to the oceans' animals:
I promise to do all of the above and more -- all that is in my power -- to protect you from toxic oil by limiting how much I use every day.
Won't you do the same, please? Join me -- make your own plan and take the same pledge. Thank you!
5 comments:
It is a good idea and determination for saving the environment and preserving the resources for the clean and better environment.
The use of bicycle is a lovely option for a healthy environment. The Local Foods are always good for health and we all should have such a determination for a pollution free environment.
Very good personal agenda to reduce dependence on petrochemicals!
I also plan to do some of those, and believe it is better to have a bike or scooter (very low gas use) than to financially support anymore BP oil products!
But consider this ...
it appears that Chevron deliberately dumped so many barrels of petrochemicals into the Amazon basin that some call that devastation the 'Amazon Chernobyl' =-((
So it must be ALL oil and gas companies that are killing us and the animals! Therefore we need to get rid of ALL oil and gas investments if we have them.
Thank you for loving animals and oceans ... and God bless you!
Best Regards,
Emerald Star (Langley, BC Canada)
Thanks for your comments. Hope the suggestions were helpful. Peace, Selkie
kayak, sail, bicycle, and you know you can also Walk!
Solar and other alternative forms of energy production have been around a long, long time.
Fuel efficient clean energy autos when necessary to drive.
Return to and remain close to the earth- close 2 the natural world- and you cannot possibly do her this kind of harm when she fills you with love light and blissfully enduring peace.
If we agree to “think globally”, it becomes evident that riveting attention on GROWTH could be a grave mistake because we are denying how economic and population growth in the communities in which we live cannot continue as it has until now. Each village's resources are being dissipated, each town's environment degraded and every city's fitness as place for our children to inhabit is being threatened. To proclaim something like, 'the meat of any community plan for the future is, of course, growth' fails to acknowledge that many villages, towns and cities are already ‘built out’, and also ‘filled in’ with people. If the quality of life we enjoy now is to be maintained for the children, then limits on economic and population growth will have to be set. By so doing, we choose to “act locally" and sustainably.
More economic and population growth are no longer sustainable in many too many places on the surface of Earth because biological constraints and physical limitations are immutably imposed upon ever increasing human consumption, production and population activities of people in many communities where most of us reside. Inasmuch as the Earth is finite with frangible environs, there comes a point at which GROWTH is unsustainable. There is much work to done locally. But that effort cannot reasonably begin without sensibly limiting economic and population growth.
To quote another source, “We face a wide-open opportunity to break with the old ways of doing the town’s business…..” That is a true statement. But the necessary “break with the old ways” of continous economic and population growth is not what is occurring. There is a call for a break with the old ways, but the required changes in behavior are not what is being proposed as we plan for the future. What is being proposed and continues to occur is more of the same, old business-as-usual overconsumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities, the very activities that appear to be growing unsustainbly. More business-as-usual could soon become patently unsustainable, both locally and globally. A finite planet with the size, composition and environs of the Earth and a community with the boundaries, limited resources and wondrous climate of villages, towns and cities where we live may not be able to sustain much longer the economic and population growth that is occurring on our watch. Perhaps necessary changes away from UNSUSTAINABLE GROWTH and toward sustainable lifestyles and right-sized corporate enterprises are in the offing.
Think globally while there is still time and act locally before it is too late for human action to make any difference in the clear and presently dangerous course of unfolding human-induced ecological events, both in our planetary home and in our villages, towns and cities.
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