Saturday, August 2, 2008

Just a LITTLE crunchy

As you know, I consider myself a little crunchy. Not entirely crunchy, just a little. I'm usually the first one of the people I know and speak with regularly to know about some new environmental issue or to stray from the mainstream when I feel the information is accurate.

HOWEVER. I will never be totally crunchy. Because I have a really hard time beleiving that I will live to be 100 if I simply stop eating bacon, lunchmeat or hotdogs. I have a hard time beleiving that by trading my gas guzzling suburban in for a moped I will prevent polar ice caps from melting and save the world. I don't always use sunscreen on my children when they are outside, because the sun gives us a wonderful thing called vitamin D, which we need to survive.

Now don't get me wrong. I care about this planet I live on. I care that we, as a society waste and waste and waste. That we pollute the air our children breathe with chemicals spewing from smokestacks on top of factories that make products we can most certainly live without. I care that we throw plastic in our landfills without a second thought. I do care. I use re-usable shopping bags most of the time, I use cloth diapers and energy efficient appliances. I don't buy paper towels or styrofoam plates. I buy eco friendly detergents (cept my tide, which you will pry from my cold dead hands). I do my best to limit the exposure my children receive from environmental toxins like fluoride, mercury, etc. It pains me greatly the few times I feel I must put bug repellant on my children, in fact I swore I got hives once from the thought of it. Growth hormone in my milk keeps me up nights and you know I really just wish i could find unbleached toilet paper at the grocery store. I'm not some horrible bitch that steps on baby frogs or blows cigarette smoke in toddlers' faces.

But here's how I see it. When mother Earth gets sick of what we do, she will knock our asses off into oblivion just as she did the damn dinosaurs. Stop bitching about global warming and trying to fix it, you can't fix it. How completely self centered of us to think we control such things. Evolve, adapt or get the eff off I say....,

I'm not going to stop eating meat because someone's old aunt Myrtle got colon cancer which MUST be from nitrates use to package hot dogs. I'm not going to start eating raw meat because some yahoo decided that cooking it releases toxins that will cause my children's grandchildren to grow a horn from their forehead. I am going to pay attention and learn what I can and when I feel that a risk is a true risk, I will act on it, but to just jump on every trendy new bandwagon because Tom Cruise's aliens sent some loser in a cave a message is stupid. Something people fail to realize is that most "scientific" studies are completely rediculous and biased to the side of whatever major company happens to be funding said study.

Use your brains people. But by all means if you want to live in a cave and eat rocks and sticks and wipe your ass with tree bark, have at it. But leave me and my Tide alone. Now pass me a hot dog off the grill.

5 comments:

InsomniacRed said...

*gives you a high five*

I try to be eco aware. I know its out there, I know I should "use" more of whatever eco friendly product there is of the day, tomorrow it will be determined to be bad...

We are huge energy wasters at our house, and I KNOW we could drop our energy bills by putting in some $$$ into our attic, er I mean insulation... lol BTW. I am saving my change, may take me a while, but we will have insulation at the very least in the attic by the time Iowa turns into a frozen tundra.

Anonymous said...

Giving you another "High Five"
I could not agree more. There are things we can change and things that we can't. There are things that will make a difference in our and our childrens life and things that won't. You really have to look into things these days because they are so quick to put the blame for every problem on something that we could prevent.
But things aren't always a two way street.....If more of us did go completley green how much a difference would it really make?
Why is it that most the time the products that they want us to use, that are eco friendly are costing us a lot more. When the cost of living is so high as it is? Wouldn't they want more of us to do it therefore making it more affordable?

PBandJ said...

And another high five!
This is so true! As much as I care about our Earth and try to be "green," the extremes are never the best place to be. Everything in moderation, please!

Anonymous said...

I'm less of a global warming freak than I am a watch-out-the-frickin-economy-is-going-to-crash!!! person. I don't particularly like lunch meat or hot dogs. I actually get sick off of them.... But I am a proponent of organic meats.

I read this book: Nourishing Traditions...that follows pretty closely how I feel about healthy eating.

I feel that it's wise to be prepared for the future. I'm not paranoid, just preparing. PLUS, I think that solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and trying to grow as much off of your own farm as possible is a good thing.

I guess that I just pretty much believe that we should let each other live how we want to live, how we want to eat and how we wish to express ourselves without being judgmental about it. :)

InsomniacRed said...

HI Guess what I just found??? Eco friendlier TP! Scroll down to # 4 http://www.5minutesforgoinggreen.com/94/reduce-paper-consumption/

They list a few TP's that are better for the environment!