Recycle, Reduce, Reuse #2: Baby Steps

Baby Steps

It can be really overwhelming to realize all the different issues that can be helped by taking action. Boycott this, email/snail mail a CEO in protest over that, stop using this product, start eating that food. I think if I tried to do it all, I'd end up going crazy. So I'm starting with baby steps and I'll keep adding things in as time goes by. So I don't forget things that I come across, however, I've been copying and saving info and links into a Word document so I can look into them in depth later on.


Treehugger Tidbit of the Day:
www.myfootprint.org - This is an interesting site and very enlightening. I took the quiz to see what my "footprint" is and here are my results as I am right now:

HERE ARE YOUR FOOTPRINT RESULTS:

CATEGORY GLOBAL ACRES
FOOD 4.7
MOBILITY 0.2
SHELTER 1.2
GOODS/SERVICES 1.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 7


IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXISTS 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.7 PLANETS.

Scary! And I'm not even that bad compared to most Americans.

I don't know about you, but I have no idea when Jesus is coming back (there's a lot to discuss in that statement alone, but I won't get into that now), and I don't want to leave a worn out Earth for future generations. Some Christians seem to have the attitude that because the Earth is going to be obliterated during Armageddon, we don't really need to worry about environmental issues. I think that's an arrogant way to think and act (and I admit that's been my attitude often, even if it I didn't think it consciously), as well as selfish. Our actions will affect future generations and I don't want to contribute to literally wearing out the earth God gave us.


Getting Down to Business

Here is a list of some things that we or I already do or have just started doing to lower our footprint, be healthier physically/mentally/spiritually, and better stewards in general:

Home:
- Turn off lights every time we leave the room for more than just a few seconds.
- Use natural lighting as often as possible
- Set aside unnecessary items to be sold at a garage sale at a later date
- We only drive one vehicle - a gas-efficient Toyota Camry. While this wasn't necessarily our original choice (we can only afford one car and the good gas mileage was a plus financially),
we really don't need two cars here, or when we move. If I had a choice of a new-to-us car, I'd go for a hybrid like the Toyota Prius.)
- Use cloth napkins (we have 'em, might as well put 'em to use!)
- Re-use paper grocery bags (we use them for trash bags/containers for garage sale items, etc)
- Re-use glass containers
- Started setting aside recycling (while our city picks up commingled recyclables from homes, our apartment complex does not have recycling pickup for some reason - I'm looking into other options, most likely taking our recyclables to the local recycling center ourselves)

Body:
- I use the Diva Cup (and highly recommend it! check out LunaPads.com for other options, too)
- Use a more natural method of birth control (We've used the Fertility Awareness Method since we got married - see www.tcoyf.com)
- Eat more natural, less processed foods

Mind/Spirit:
- Watch less TV/Movies (We don't actually get cable, but I'd gotten hooked on some TV shows that you can watch online. I've limited how much I watch now. We also get Netflix and considered canceling it, but opted to just not use it quite as much as we were.)
- Spend more time doing crafts and other activities.
- Unsubscribe from unnecessary email lists (as they come into my inbox) to limit the bombardment of information

That's all I can think of for the moment...there are a LOT more changes I'm hoping to implement. I'll talk about that in my next post.

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse: A beginning

♫And close the loooooop!♫ (Sorry, can't help myself!)

A Beginning
I've been re-thinking a lot of things lately. I'll admit it, I've been very lazy and purposefully ignorant about a lot of things simply because I didn't want to put the time and effort into even considering that my pre-conceived notions might be wrong or out-of-date compared to what I *do* know now.

As I learn about different issues, particularly in regards to social justice and the environment, I gain a responsibility to do something with that knowledge. But I haven't. And I want to change that.

Call me crunchy, call me a hippie, but I've been realizing that it is my responsibility to do what I can to minimize my ecological footprint on this earth. Being eco-friendly/green/etc is a matter of being a good steward of what God has given us. I wasn't really taught this growing up, particularly not in the Christian circles I was in. I was taught to be a good steward of money (tithe, save, etc), to take good care of the material things I possessed (don't dent the car, don't throw your toys). But there wasn't the same emphasis on taking care of Creation - which God specifically gave us to take care of.

To be fair, it wasn't completely ignored. My family went on backpacking trips every summer when we were young, and my parents emphasized that we were to leave every place we visited just as it was when we arrived (or better, if some less conscientious backpackers were there before us). We were taught to be respectful of nature and to enjoy it.

But materialism is pervasive in our culture, not to the exclusion of Christian culture (Case in point: how much stuff in Christian bookstores is sold just to make money? I mean, who really needs all that stuff?) I have fallen into that trap MANY MANY times also. All my life I've hoarded things. I still have birthday cards in boxes from grade school. I do not need to keep them. I have so much stuff that I need to sort through, it doesn't all fit in our apartment.

Lately, I've been finding myself in an odd place, both spiritually and mentally. For some reason, I've been captured by the fact that I need to simplify my life in a LOT of different areas and keep only the things that are beneficial, or that I truly love. All the rest I do not need and it just serves to clutter my home, my mind, and my spirit.

Since all these things have come up in my mind and as I've been pondering them, I've realized that there is a definite spiritual affect. I've hit a fairly low place in my spiritual journey, to be completely honest. I've felt very disconnected and haven't really been disciplined or devoted to nurturing my relationship with God. Not all my thoughts and ponderings are completely worked out yet, but I think there has been purpose in all this. After our Easter service Saturday night at Aqueous, I realized that this low point I've been going through is allowing me to start fresh in my walk with God and I have hope that as I point myself back towards Him (cause He's always there, whether I am "in it" or not), I am going to end up with a totally new relationship with Him, and a new identity in Him that is closer to the person He created me to be.

And that person is going to continue to take more personal responsibility for the social and ecological issues that are so rampant in this world. Setting aside all the debate, what does it hurt anyway? There are a lot of practical reasons to pursue simpler living as well (hello moving truck!)

I still have a lot of thoughts on this, particularly getting into specifics, so I will probably make this into a series as I continue to flesh things out.

Inspiration
Some links to blogs I've recently discovered that have been both inspirational and educational.

No Impact Man

Sara - Walk Slowly, Live Wildly
(Check out the pics of her family's small, but well utilized, living space on her blog and here on Flickr)