Sustainable Relationships

It is easy to get so wrapped up in fighting for the causes that matter to us environmentalists that we completely forget to put that same enthusiasm and passion into our relationships. We spend countless hours online catching up on world news, attending lectures and protesting injustices, but all the while the people we care about are being neglected.

Most of us can agree that the only way to sustain a healthy earth is to lessen your impact every day, and the only way to truly do this is to make sustainability a way of life not a chore. And if being sustainable is a way of life, then why don't we apply the same principles to every aspect of our life, including our relationships? Here are some tips on how to keep your relationship sustainable:

1.) Keep An Open Mind: It is easy to be open-minded to new ideas or products, but we tend to shut people out who aren't like us or don't match our crazy ideals. I recently started dating someone who is much much younger than me, which is not normal at all for me. I normally have an age cap that I strictly adhere to because I believed it was keeping me from wasting my time on a relationship doomed to failure. The truth is, I have had countless numbers of failed relationships with people closer to my age, and every single one of those relationships ended because of who we are as people, not how old we were. Once I came to this realization I was able to shrug off our age difference and give this younger guy the same chance I would give any guy, and believe me it has paid off. I am finally being treated like the goddess I am, and living entirely in the present.
2.) Nourish Your Relationship: The biggest mistake you can make in a relationship is to think that you don't have to work at it. Imagine if you just stopped recycling and composting and just let all that junk pile up, your life and the environment would suffer for it. It is the same with your relationship. You have to spend as much time on your relationship letting it grow and thrive as you would on your garden. Weed out any issues, nourish each other with kind words and constant support, and make sure to do small things for each other every day. One of my favorite relationships I have ever been in was one where we had Friday night themed movie/dinner night. We would choose a theme, like 80's movies, and we would dress-up, cook dinner together and watch a movie all based off of that theme. It was the most fun I have ever had with someone.
3.) Maintain A Strong Base: So many of us environmentalists will fight tooth and nail for a cause, but when it comes to a relationship we sometimes take the easy way out. It can be hard to remember why the two of you fell in love in the first place when your relationship is lacking in emotional and physical intimacy. It is important during these times to recall the strong base and connection that you have, and not let your issues weigh you down so much that all you want to do is escape the situation, whether it is good in the long run or not. Your relationship should be the biggest cause in your life worth fighting for, but somewhere along the way it becomes the easiest thing to leave. We try and rationalize that it is just "not meant to be," as if it is just as easy to find that base and connection with someone else, but this kind of mentality is not that of a true environmentalist and is not practicing the true definition of a sustainable relationship.

Sustainable farming methods...Pass It On!

Everyone has some sort of "Top 10 things you want to do before you die" list, and on my list is to do volunteer work abroad, teaching sustainable methods of living. But you would be surprised how difficult it is to work for free outside of the United States. Most places have discovered that they can make good money from people's desire to give back, and therefore many businesses have started to charge a fee to volunteer with them. You could be charged anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands for the "experience." This is crazy to me. Why should I have to pay a hefty fee for working from the goodness of my heart?

Lucky for me my mom introduced me to WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). WWOOF gives you a list of host farms who are practicing organic methods of gardening and farming, and then it is up to you to contact the farms you are interested in working for and schedule length of stay and dates. A lot of the work is helping to build structures, set up composts, harvest fruits and vegis, etc. There is a small fee of about $27 to access the list of host families, but beside that WWOOF doesn't charge a fee and you will get free room and board in exchange for your services. Isn't that the way it should be?

In September I have plans to work my way around Europe. Spain, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Hungary are all on my itinerary. All I have to pay for is the airline tickets, eurorail pass and food during my travels. This will be the first time I travel alone, and I am very nervous about it, but optimistic that everything will work out. If my mother can do it, so can I. What an exciting experience this will be!

Rethinking Consumer Buying

It is an interesting time to be a consumer in the United States right now. On the one hand, consumers are dealing with lay offs and uncertain financial stability around the world, causing consumers to decrease their spending habits drastically, and on the other hand, the public is being told by public officials and many mediums that they need to spend more in order for the economy to pick up. It is all so confusing, but right now is the perfect time for us all to make a major life change that is environmentally and economically smart.

I completely agree that halting spending entirely is going to do nothing to stimulate our teetering economy and boost consumer confidence, but we must also be smart about our purchases and live an environmentally conscious life every day. It has been stated that 50% of greenhouse gas emissions are directly linked to the production and consumption of consumer goods. This means that every purchase you make, whether it is clothing or electronics, is contributing to the downfall of this planet. Does that mean we all need to abandon our homes, live in a shack in the woods and grow all of our own food? Well that would be ideal, but not very realistic at this time. The key is to think local, recycled and second hand. Here are my tips to begin a new life as a more responsible consumer:

1.) Buy Small & Local: When I say buy local, I don't mean shop at your local Wal Mart. What I mean is purchase from small local businesses. Every Saturday in my home town my community has a Saturday Market. The event has booths from about 50 local artisans, cooks, and craftmen. It is a perfect time to pick up a hand made candle, jewelry, or a piece of art. Many of the vendors are just as concerned with being environmentally conscious as I am, and so they try and only use organic material grown here in Oregon. I normally shy away from buying any new products, but when I buy from a fellow local business, I feel a sense of pride and a connection with my community. I love knowing that I am making a choice to not contribute to the corporate, materialistic world our forefathers have designed for us.
2.) Always try and get it used: When it comes to things like electronics and home decor, do your pocketbook and the environment a favor by buying used. You'd be surprised the great finds you can get in secondhand shops and how easy and fun it is to spruce up an old item and make it unique and new. We have a great electronics place in Eugene called BRING that fixes old computers and cameras and resells them at a great price. It is the perfect place to get computer hardware, and a great place to recycle electronics you are no longer using.
3.) Differentiate between a want and a need: Teenagers in particular seem to not understand this concept, but is it really their fault? We live in a world that bombards us with advertisements and entertainment figures, which are both stuffing products down our throats 24/7. There isn't a day that goes by that I am not reminded of the capitalist society I live in. But just because that is the way it has been doesn't mean that is the way it needs to stay. As consumers we have all the power, and we can use our power by not buying excessively and not contributing to big business conglomerates. Do you really need to upgrade to a new phone or ipod every single year? No! Do you really need to buy $200 shoes made in a sweatshop just because they are brand name? Hell no! The moment Americans realize how much power they really have over this economy is the moment real change can happen.

Earth Day Every Day!

Earth Day is looming, and like every year I am scrambling around trying to decide on the perfect gift for our Mother Earth. I have grand dreams of volunteering at Mt. Pisgah, or helping weed a local community garden, and though my intentions are good, I will instead get off work at 5 p.m. drive home in my car (yes, my car not a bike or bus) and read online about all of the great things people have done all day while I was at work. Then the next day everyone I know is going to ask me what I did to make a difference, and the truth will be that I did not do squat to lessen my carbon imprint, but I will lie and say I saved a slug from being hit by a car or I used my pogo stick to get to work.

Earth Day is similar to Valentines Day as far as the guilt factor goes. I feel pressured to show my appreciation in some elaborate way even though I do little things every day to show that I care. Why do humans enjoy designating a single day to prove our love, to make a difference, to celebrate life, to act like kids? Shouldn't we be encouraging people to do these things every day instead of one day a year? That is why I choose to not celebrate Valentines Day, and why I had Halloween for Christmas. Yes, I realize this all might sound cynical considering nothing bad can come from people doing good deeds for the planet, but I really believe that every day is Earth Day and we should all make life changes that go along with that.

Here are five tips for making every day Earth Day:

1.) Eat Responsibly: This means being aware of every food purchase. You should be trying to buy local as much as possible to lessen the carbon impact and to hopefully support smaller businesses and your local economy. If you can't buy local, you should at least try to buy from a company that is in your time zone. You should also try and buy organically when possible and from smaller companies. You can't go wrong if you buy your food from a farmer's market.
2.) Cut Out the Fat: Meat is yummy and sometimes the animal in me just wants to nibble on a medium rare steak, but the truth is eating and raising livestock on a large scale is causing more damage to the environment than our gas gussling vehicles. This is going to require a big life change, but believe me you will survive and you are doing humanity and the environment a big favor. (Check out my last blog to find out more reasons to cut out meat!)
3.) The Yellow Rule: It might sound old fashioned, but the yellow mellow rule totally makes sense and will save you money and gallons of water usage.
4.) Keep it Cool: My house is always set at around 63 degrees. This makes for a cold winter, but it cuts down on my electricity consumption and eventually you get use to wearing a hat and scarf in the house.
5.) Compost it: Composting is one of the most wonderful things you can do for yourself and the planet. I love knowing that I have little to no food waste, and with composting and recycling I can go a few weeks before I fill an entire trash bin. I am so into composting that I have a small worm compost that sits on my deck and a large compost bin in my front yard. Once you begin composting it becomes a healthy addiction.

One Billion Too Many

The American public has plenty to say when it comes to who Jennifer Aniston is dating and how much money they lost in the stock market, but when it comes to serious issues like over-population everyone is hush, hush. By now the majority of us understand and even acknowledge that over consumption has pushed us into the economic crisis we face today, but no one wants to acknowledge the cold hard facts—we are outgrowing our resources at a dangerous rate.

In America alone around 4 million people are born a year, and because of improvements in technology and in the medical field, only half as many people die a year. Americans are at the beginning stage of making the necessary changes to curb our addictions, but what about our addiction for life? We fight tooth and nail to stay alive for as long as possible, and we consider every pregnancy to be a "blessing," whether it is forced or implanted by a doctor, and yet this obsession with life is actually killing our earth and eventually our species. In this day and age in the United States there is no real reason for a couple to have more than one child (it's not like we need our kids to work in our fields or on our farm), and it seems selfish to have more than one biological child, especially when there are thousands of kids all over the world that need a home.

Speaking of people with a large family, I have been thinking a lot about the octuplet mom scandal. I can't remember any other time when the public has been outraged by multiple births such as this; in fact, I recall how in the past the public has treated these births as "miracles" and rushed to help out the overwhelmed parents, so what makes this mom so different? Maybe it is because of the recession, or the fact that the octuplet mom already has six kids, or that she is honest about her obsession with having children, but whatever the reason may be, the public is outraged to the point of harassment. People claim they are angry because the taxpayers are going to have to be the ones paying for the octuplet mom's irresponsibility, but I would like to think that maybe the public is recognizing in their anger what a huge problem overpopulation is but they are just too scared to voice their feelings.

There are a lot of negative connotations surrounding population control, and in the U.S. we are quick to associate the word "overpopulation" with communism and being Un-American. In reality, the one-child policy of the People's Republic of China might not have been perfect or implemented correctly, but at least they were acknowledging that there is a problem and I think we could learn a lot from our world neighbors on this issue. Our first step is to recognize this is a serious issue, and then to let the communication flow from there.

Eating Our Earth

A few months ago I read a wonderful article in E magazine by Jim Motavalli entitled "The Meat of the Matter" at http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4264&src=QSAVS4. I already knew a little about the damage raising cattle has caused to the earth, but this article reinforced what I already believed and made me think even more about my buying habits. I rarely eat red meat and in my house we started to cut out dairy products, but after finding out that "The methane that cattle and their manure produce had a global warming effect equal to that of 33 million automobiles," it wasn't hard for my house and eating habits to become cattle free.
The article talks about how nearly every aspect of the huge international meat trade has an environmental or health consequence. I had no idea that grazing occupies 26 percent of our water free land surface and that is all land that could go to feeding ourselves not the animals we eat! If you really want to rethink eating meat just keep this in mind, in Brazil alone, 60 to 70 percent of rainforest destruction is caused by clearing for animal pasture, which basically means that we are eliminating a major source of oxygen just to feed our hunger for milkshakes and hamburgers. Man are we smart!
At the same time I was saying goodbye to my beloved cheese, I also made the decision to stop buying fish and many other seafood products that are caught by nets and/or large corporations. I simply can't justify taking such massive amounts of living organisms out of the ocean, which depends on large amounts of fish and sea life to survive, in order to again, feed my appetite. But if you are cool with taking food away from whales, dolphins, and other sea mammals, than of course by all means continue supporting the huge fishing trade that is killing itself every day due to greed.
Ask yourself this, when a person in the United States goes into any grocery store what do they see? Aisles of options. For every one food item, there is generally at least three options to choose from, and yet with all of these options we are given why do we continue to make the most destructive choices? Human beings are not going to die if they can't eat their beef or pork, and as much as we need calcium, not digesting dairy products has proven to not harm people in any way. I just can't seem to rack my brain around the fact that we would rather kill our planet, which means killing our species, instead of changing our eating habits.