It might seem odd to live in one of the least-well insulated houses in the county (with possibly the largest per-capita empty square footage as well—so when I bought it I thought someday I might want to have kids, sue me...) but I've taken a bit of a green turn.
It's not really the first one, I spent eight years as a vegetarian—first for health reasons and then for environmental and moral ones—before my body began craving meat.
As of about a week ago I've decided to embark on a one-thirds to two-thirds policy. My goal is to eat two of three meals a day meat-free and at least one. It's like lent, only without the seven day calendar or the rigid control of the Catholic church.
In truth I was my slimmest when I was a vegetarian (though not always the healthiest) and it's not really an issue to do that again most of the time. That said, I have no problems with the thought of slaughtering an animal and eating it, I just think we're too gung-ho about meat consumption in this country.
I've also become one of the first members of a committee in Nyack to make the village more green. This one's pretty exciting to me, as the president of the Rockland Bicycling Club this gives me the opportunity to take something I like to do and extend it out to the community.
We have some nice idea to start off with, for example the village is looking to get their own truck to do recycling so they can actually recycle the items from the businesses in town. I suggested getting a diesel vehicle and converting it to bio diesel, fueling it with the crud that comes from the town's restaurants. Then Nyack can smell like french fries. Yumm!
Since about November I've made more than 90% of my trips to Nyack by bike or foot. I've only stopped in Nyack in a car on the way back from somewhere else. In fact the only trip to downtown I've taken by car was a trip for a meal at OD's when it was utterly freezing out.
(Actually, you can read about my winter riding here: http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/REPOSITORY/801300364/1019/NEWS03)
I'm not really able to do that four-mile circle around my house to see where else I should go by bike, since you can't get anywhere up 59 without getting killed. I actually can get to the mall but it takes about 8 miles to do it safely. That's a lot of biking for a shitty shopping craptaculon and a Jamba Juice. (Though I do love me my Jamba.)
Our house has recently replaced all the tungsten lights we could with fluorescents. I'm not completely sold on the environmental aspects of this—there's some narsty stuff in those bulbs—but the energy savings are clear, and reduced production of electricity is important too.
Okay, your turn. What green things are you up to recently?
I'll be thinking of some more while I'm out riding my bike in global warming induced 45 degree weather in February!
Green is my favorite color...
We try to be a conscientious above our environment as we can, to that end;
- We switched over to flourescents and when they go, we're investigating LEDs. Mercury contamination = BAD (just ask a tuna)
- We only use cleaning products made from non chemical stuff. Vinegar and Bon Ami and Dr. Bonner's Sal Suds can pretty much do everything
- We bring our own bags grocery shopping. Who needs more bags?
- We keep the heat on 62 - 64 degrees. Yes, you know that already. Keila, shut up and wear a sweater
- AND we just bought a pre-owned (as in used) Crate & Barrel couch off of Craig's list. So I reduced and reused!
As far as eating animals is concerned - I hear ya. I talked to Jolie last night and she's going to teach us some high protein, non animal recipes when she comes next month. Meat is not sustainable over the long run. We are thinking of a chicken coop 'cause we're evidently not weird enough already.
OH - we are also telling everyone our families NO NEW BABY STUFF. Totally not necessary. The only new thing we'll need is a car seat. I want our baby, whoever and whenever s/he comes, to have a decent, non polluted place to have a life.
I also saved a lot of punctuation on this post alone.
Posted by: DW | February 02, 2008 at 08:46 AM