...eat meat? Use plastic? Drive a regular car? Have more than two kids? Flush every time???
These are the questions that plague me. Maybe I think too much. Scratch that: I KNOW I think too much. That old kids' question game where you give choices like, if you had to, would you rather be blind, or deaf? Oh, blind, please. I can go without seeing the horrors we humans create, but don't leave me alone in this head with all these thoughts. I need music just to drown me out sometimes. I want to hear the birds and the rain and the wind - they help.
I do eat meat. Does that mean I don't care? Of course not. I try to be responsible about it, where I get it from, the farms on which it is raised, etc... I refuse to eat veal (cruel), and I know our days with certain tunas are numbered, so I abstain... we've cut back for sure. Vegans and vegetarians would be at constant odds with us omnivores. But aren't we all working towards the same goal?
The kids thing, though. That really sticks for me. Bear with me; I'm just a little witch trying to figure this whole big world out. I don't have any, myself. My clock never ticked. Maybe that's why I have this big disconnect. It could be. But having a child is the biggest carbon footprint you can make. In my terribly humble opinion, one is great, two is OK, three... STOP. It's... just not necessary. All the plastic diapers and other plastic products that come with a baby? Aren't there enough children already in this world? Can't we just adopt a homeless person instead? That can be just as rewarding! Right? And you can give all that love to one or two, a third or fourth or eighth, well, someone's going to get neglected. Seriously.
Actually, sometimes I feel we just need to stop adding more people until we are better to the people that are already here. And better to the planet. Maybe we should learn some things before we add extra population. Maybe we could learn to live WITH Nature like every other successful species on the planet does. Maybe we need a time-out to learn some things, to learn to HEAR... to listen... before we're allowed to bring more in. You know, the old learn-to-keep-a-plant-alive, then a pet... then...?
We need to slow down. We need to slow down on many fronts, on many things, in many ways. What we think of as progress and moving forward isn't necessarily "better", just because it's new. We need to pause, reflect, look back, slow down, listen. We need to stop for a second.
Let's stop. And think. And breathe.
I think you can call yourself an environmentalist, even if you do those things. How so? Because you're doing them in moderation. Eating some meat is not bad. We all need protein to stay healthy. You are selective of your proteins though and that is a good thing. The use of plastic is not horrible, if it is in moderation....which I tend to believe you do. Driving a regular car? Not horrible unless you're driving a Hummer or something similar, and I highly doubt you're that type. I also see you eventually getting a Hybrid of some sort in the future...I'm guessing when your current vehicle is in need of replacement, because buying cars every couple years is a wasteful mentality to adopt, and you don't strike me as the wasteful type. There's nothing wrong with getting the maximum life out of an automobile before replacing it.
ReplyDeleteAs for kids....I'll let that one go for now. Having had two kids, I don't feel irresponsible for popping out too many, but I don't view them in terms of the "carbon footprint" I am leaving on this Earth either.
I hear you. I drive a car, but I try to drive it less. I eat meat, but I will only buy ethically-raised meat and I have cut back drastically. And I stopped eating dairy. I don't have kids and never will. (In fact, I am a card-carrying member of VHEMT. Ha.) I think we all need to slow down, and to help the people already here before we bring MORE consumers into the world.
ReplyDeleteI think it's GOOD to honestly examine these things, and not to mindlessly indulge in societal norms just because "that's what people do." Good for you.