how far will you go to be green?
of course we like to be environmentally friendly when we can around here. we recycle, and we try to save energy and repurpose stuff.
i would like to say that we do this just to help the earth, but the reality is that we do it to help our own budget as well. let's face it...being ecofriendly is usually budget friendly.
one thing i find interesting in america though...at least in the south, is that sometimes christian culture can be very opposed to the whole idea of being environmentally friendly. which i find down right bizarre really. whether or not global warming is true, shouldn't we always do our best to take care of the earth that God has given us? it just seems like we should be more of a driving force behind this movement and give balance to it rather than opposing it. anyways...there's my soap box!
of course shomik and i could always do more. i've dabbled in the idea of composting, but i just haven't quite gotten myself there yet! it sounds all good and nice until i think of everything rotting in my yard.
but i do hope to make some kind of rain barrel at some point...
it seems in some areas though that ecofriendly has turned really commercial and trendy in the US. like i see no reason to throw perfectly working items into a landfill so that you can buy more ecofriendly ones...that kind of defeats the purpose.
anyways, all this to say that americans can have some double standards in this area. myself included.
when i think about india in this sense, it's very different!
i think india would probably be one of the most environmently friendly places in the world...if people didn't throw trash wherever they liked...and if there weren't so stinkin' many of them...people i mean.
because seriously, when we're in india, i am hard pressed to find any kind of disposable paper or napkin....and trust me...i've looked.
it's just how people live.
napkins are like the kryptonite to my ecofriendly efforts. i need like 12 for any meal, and that's when i'm eating with silverware...which is not the indian tradition. in india you eat with your hand. (or in my case...still with both hands!)
so i think toilet paper goes unsaid. i know. it's a horrible demise for a tree, but i just can't help it. i need it. the splashing water bit just doesn't cut it for me.
but in most indian households you won't find any of these things. napkins, tp, kleenex...i had a cold in india one time, and that was an interesting situation. i didn't realize that people still used handkerchiefs.
there's no waste of things like hot water or gasoline either...you heat the water for your shower right before you need it, and people take public transport, or else pile as many as will fit into one vehicle.
somehow i find myself able to do these things in india when i need to...but get me back in the US, and i definitely need my tp...and i may take the train or bus occasionally, but it's rare.
i don't really know what the point of this particular blog is...right or wrong, i guess just to point out the fact that there are a lot of discrepancies between myself and my ideals...and these are things that it sometimes takes another culture to fully bring out.
Coming from a country where you have 5 trash baskets to sort your stuff for recycling I am kind of torn too. When I go back to Germany it gets on my nerve since I have to relearn how to sort and than every city has its own way of sorting...... Living green can become a really drag sometimes but its also cultural, you are so right. Its a lot easier to do things if everybody does it. :-) And I think that is the problem here. In america everybody is so individualistic that its going to be hard to get them to change and do what the rest of the world is doing for many years. Eating healthier and being more conserving ( really funny how this word is so close to conservative right?). It always has been funny to me how Americans, and specially Texans live as if they have a second America/Texas in their pocket. :-) But, I am like you, adjusting to my surroundings..... :-)
ReplyDeleteyeah, i guess people figure that texas is so big that there's plenty to spare. :P hehe.
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