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DEBBIE'S
GREEN PAGE
As we turned the calendar over to 2008, more
of our resolution lists included steps to green up our lives
and, thus, our planet. This is certainly an admirable goal for
every one of us. Many things we can all do to save energy aren’t
difficult at all. Conservation is the ultimate situation where
every little bit helps. People rarely become totally green
overnight.
Like New Year’s resolutions, conserving
precious natural resources takes planning, organization, and
determination to do the work involved. If you add one new step
to your green regimen every few weeks, by this time next year
you can look back and see that you’re making a real difference
in the future of the planet.
Of course, we can’t all be like Ed Begley Jr.
The well-known actor uses his HGTV show, “Living with Ed,” to
demonstrate the many ways in which we can all participate in the
fight against global warming. For decades, Begley has been so
fanatical about green living that he’s been known to “drive” to
awards shows on his bicycle. When he travels longer distances,
he’ll “splurge” and use his electric car. You can learn more
about this inspirational global warrior on his web site at:
www.edbegley.com.
Begley and his wife, Rachelle Carson, aren’t
afraid to air their little family conflicts over the lengths to
which they should go to save natural resources.
Though she supports his ecological goals, Rachelle
admits she’d love to enjoy a bit of luxury once in a while,
such as a hot shower that lasts longer than her husband’s strict
time limit.
The lesson here is that we’re all conflicted
over just how much we should do, as opposed to how
much we can do, in the epic battle to save the
planet. For years, Jim and I have been involved in this effort,
to a greater extent every year. Over the years we’ve become more
conscious of ways we can help in this most fundamental
cause, to save our home, the planet that sustains our very
lives.
On the other hand, there are more things we
can to do to live greener, and we're taking steps to do more in
the future. But medical conditions, especially on my part, make
certain things impossible for us to do.
The articles on this page detail those things we're
already doing to fight global warming. To read about those things we
have yet to accomplish, check out our (much too long) green living to-do list
at:
And we're doing one more thing to save energy
(and money), but the subject is complicated. You see, a lot of
people are doing it, and even more are talking about it. Trouble
is, most people are doing it the wrong way. I'm talking about
using compact fluorescent light (CFLs) bulbs that don't emit
ultraviolet (UV) rays. This vital health issue is just as
important as fighting global warming. To learn how to obtain
CFLs that don't poison you with UV rays, go to:
(All articles originally appeared in
Arizona
City Independent Edition)
www.trivalleycentral.com
To jump to a particular article, just click on the title
below:
WHY NOT GREEN?
(Originally featured in
Arizona City Independent Edition,
October 8, 2008)
Since late last year, I’ve written several
articles in this column on some of the simple things we can do
to help save our planet. Of course, "green living" is "in" now,
thanks to people like Al Gore, who was sounding the alarm on
global warning for decades before it became popular.
Jim and I heard his message years ago. Back
then, we were doing small things to help, but it wasn’t enough.
We still have a long way to go. Becoming green is a step-by-step
process; it doesn’t happen overnight.
No matter how popular it is to fight global
warming, there are still nay-sayers, especially among powerful
people who, sadly, stand squarely in the way of progress. I fear
that they could be signing a death warrant for many species on
the planet--including, eventually, the human race.
That’s why we’re involved in this effort.
Actually, I made up my mind to join the ecological fight fifty
years ago. In the summer of 1958, I witnessed an example of why
we must be careful about managing our natural resources.
Growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, I loved going
with my family to swim in Lake Worth, east of the city. In the
early ‘50s, Lake Worth was a nice place for families to swim,
picnic, and just hang out. When we lived in Ridglea on the east
side of town, we went up there several times each summer, but
after we moved to Handley on the west side in December 1955, we
didn’t get to the lake nearly as often.
Then one day we took a trip up to Lake Worth,
just to spend a day in the country. For some reason, we didn’t
wear bathing suits, which we would have done in the early part
of the decade. Maybe our parents knew. I never did ask them
about it. But it turned out to be an eye-opening trip.
Though it was a bright summer day, there
weren’t many people around. I understood why after we left the
car and started walking toward the lake. I first noticed that
there was a different odor to the air than the fresh one I
remembered from earlier days. The closer we got to the water,
the more I could smell it, and it wasn’t pleasant.
Upon reaching the water, we realized the lake
was much smaller than it had been before. Fort Worth was always
going through alternate spells of too much and too little,
floods and drought, so a shrunken lake wouldn’t be that much of
a surprise. But it was the condition of the water and the beach
that shocked me.
The water itself was dark and dirty looking,
not like the fresh, clean water we used to swim in. It looked so
bad we weren’t even tempted to wade in, which we would’ve done,
even if we hadn’t planned to swim. On that day, we didn’t even
want to walk across the beach, which was littered with trash and
dead fish. Even the soil, the former lake bed, didn’t look or
feel like good old Texas dirt. As an outdoor kid, I knew good
dirt when I saw it, and this wasn’t it!
The entire area had a doomsday feel to it.
Even vegetation surrounding the expensive lakefront houses
looked sick. The entire scene had the pall of death. I don’t
know whether it was pollution or neglect or just all the trash
that had been dumped around there. It was probably a combination
of all those things. The lake and the land around it was dying,
and something must be done to bring it back to life.
We didn’t stay at Lake Worth for long that
day, and it was the last time we went there. The next spring, we
moved to Littleton, CO. I haven’t been back to the area, except
during a couple of subsequent moves when we drove straight
through the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex without stopping.
I do know that since that fateful day, things
have changed for the better. Apparently, people took charge of
the situation and cleaned up the lake. I discovered this while
watching an episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" and saw Chuck
Norris visiting a house on the shore of Lake Worth.
The area was beautiful again, the lake clean,
and all the houses surrounded by lush lawns and thriving trees
and plants. I’ve since checked the internet and found that Lake
Worth is a thriving resort community now. That would’ve been
impossible with the lake I’d seen in the summer of 1958.
That’s why I have no doubt that no matter what
other factors affect the environment, positive human involvement
is vital. Besides, it’s the one factor we can control. We have
the choice to ignore the obvious and kill this planet, bit by
bit. Or we can nurture it and help it to thrive as a wonderful
"mansion" for the enjoyment of the entire human race. It’s up to
us.
I plan to be among the positive inhabitants of
this planet, our virtual home. I hope you’ll join me in that
effort too!
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RECYCLING
Besides turning off lights, electrical
appliances, and water faucets, our first big step came when we
began using recycling bins in our mobile-home community in
Texas. I must admit, it took me a while to realize exactly what
was meant by the label on that bin reserved for plastic. By the
time we moved away from that house, I knew the difference
between numbers one and two plastic and the higher numbers of
plastic that recycling services don’t bother with.
In our next home in Georgia, it was still easy
for us to recycle. There were no handy collection bins in either
of our Forsyth County neighborhoods, but the landfill was just a
couple of blocks off the main drag on the way to our favorite
stores. Besides being easy to dump all recyclable materials, it
was cheaper to pay twenty-five cents per bag to dump trash there
instead of hiring a trash-hauling service. Since recycling
lowered our trash output, we never paid more than a dollar or
two per month to dispose of our trash.
Since moving to Arizona City, and now Casa
Grande, we’ve been disappointed at limits to the types of
plastic and metal being collected for recycling. Then a few
years ago, they stopped collecting glass in this area
altogether. When we lived in Arizona City, we did have to make
the effort to deliver recyclable materials to landfills or
collections bins in several places. But now that we live in Casa
Grande, we enjoy the luxury of curbside recycling pickup, as
well as trash pickup in the alleys--just like the "good old
days"!
Of course, we’re painfully aware that
politicians manipulate the tax structure to control what is
recycled and what can be made from it. That’s why we must elect
candidates who’ll make every effort to encourage recycling of
all reusable materials and support businesses that use those
materials to manufacture new products for a worldwide market.
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GIVING UP THE GREEN
TO BE
MORE "GREEN"
We’re taking other steps to save the planet
too. Since moving into our “new” house in Casa Grande, we
haven’t wasted any precious water on the grass in our backyard.
We plan to replace the superfluous vegetation with a layer of
small pebbles. I admit we were spoiled in Georgia, since
humidity made watering the lawn unnecessary, but Jim did waste
gasoline by using a riding mower on our spacious quarter-acre
lot.
Recent news reports indicate that the historic
eastern climate has changed and green lawns are out of style for
the duration. But we’ve lived in several places where watering
was controlled or even banned, mostly here in the western U.S.
Brown lawns and the ubiquitous rocky “Arizona lawns” don’t
bother us a bit.
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WET AND "GREEN"
My next tip also requires an initial effort
and a bit of discipline, but the long-term savings are
significant, in both cash and natural resources. Instead of
buying bottled water from the store, install a faucet filter and
start saving money right away. The trick is to remember to turn
the switch to the filter when you pour water for drinking or
cooking, then flip the switch off the filter for other uses.
That habit saves a ton of money on replacement filters.
Besides providing great tasting water, these
filters remove virtually all those dangerous microscopic
thingies that could be lurking in your water, and it kills the
bad taste of chemicals that are added to kill those nasty bugs.
We’ve used Brita filters in Arizona City and Casa Grande, and
our water is always delicious and satisfying. Even better, we
never have to recycle all those plastic water bottles, which
saves us a ton of effort and more of the world’s natural
resources.
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BAGGING THE "GREEN"
So far in this series, I’ve detailed several
steps we’re taking to help save the planet. Some of them also
save us money. The latest step we’ve adopted is already starting
to make us a bit of change, depending on where we apply the
idea.
I recently put several canvas bags in my car
to use when I shop, instead of wasting the “paper or plastic”
provided by stores. Of course, I always recycle the plastic
anyway, but not using them in the first place is much better for
the planet. The trouble is, for a while I kept forgetting to
bring the canvas bags into the store with me. Finally I began
keeping them on the front passenger seat where I couldn’t miss
them. Now I’m moving closer to imprinting this new habit into my
psyche.
Once I got into the swing of things, I
discovered that Fry’s (a Kroger-owned store) gives a five-cent rebate for every canvas
bag I fill with groceries instead of wasting their bags. In one
trip I save anywhere from a nickel to a quarter. Even better,
I’m doing my bit to help save the planet. Maybe the rebate will
encourage Jim to remember to use the canvas bags too.
Not all the stores where we use canvas bags
will pay us for the effort, but at least we won’t be wasting any
more of those plastic store bags. That puts both our conscience
and the planet in pretty good stead.
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"GREEN" LIVING
AND
OUR HEALTH
Some planet-saving measures aren’t easy for
everyone to implement. Some conservation steps take more effort
by people with certain medical conditions, but others actually
help us with many of our symptoms. That has certainly been true
for Jim and me.
Jim and I implemented two resource-saving
steps for health reasons. They help me a lot; they’re good for
Jim too; and they really aid in the fight against global
warming. First we became vegetarians. Now we’re slowly replacing
all those chemical-based concoctions with green products,
including everything from personal grooming products to
household cleaners.
Many people consider these two steps too
radical for their taste. They don’t understand the benefits of
reducing the consumption of meat, especially red meat. I was
convinced that veggies leave less waste in the body than meat
when I saw how clean the inside of a pot is after I cook up a
batch of veggie stew, soup, or chili. I realized that all the
gunk that stuck to the pan when I used to cook anything with
meat is the same crud that sticks to the inside of our arteries
when we eat meat.
Then there’s the money factor. Try a
vegetarian diet for a week or two, then try spending the same
amount of money on a meat-based diet during the same period of
time. You’ll find that meat tends to pad the grocery bill. Even
lower-fat meats and poultry aren’t as cheap or as good for you
as plant-based foods. Cutting the amount of animal products you
consume will lower your grocery bills and benefit your health
too.
Jim and I still eat eggs and use nonfat dry
milk powder in cooking or with cereal. One day maybe we’ll try
soy milk, but we’re taking this one step at a time. Our lacto-ovo
vegetarian diet is still helping to save natural resources. It
takes a lot less land and other resources to produce veggie
products for human consumption than it does to raise animals for
the same purpose.
Though we started replacing our chemical-based
products some time ago, it’s an ongoing project. Some years ago,
I stopped getting perms at the beauty shop because the chemicals
bothered my scalp and skin. I never liked what makeup did to my
skin, even hypoallergenic brands. The more I learned about
what’s in those products, the more I was convinced that it’s not
a good idea to use them. Then I developed a severe allergy to
all chemical dyes and even some natural ones, so now I avoid
makeup altogether.
Another problem is the fragrances in most of
these products. You see, almost all commercial fragrances are
made from petroleum. That’s right, the same thing they use to
make gasoline. Instead of dabbing on perfume, you might as well
go down to the filling station and slap on some gas. And if
you’ve heard reports that household scents are causing a lot of
people to develop asthma, that’s because they might as well go
sniff the stuff in their car’s fuel tank.
If that doesn’t make you think, maybe this
will: As my allergies worsened, I realized that commercial
scents no longer smell like the flowers and spices they’re
designed to imitate. Instead, they smell like the refineries and
chemical plants that surround the area where we used to live in
La Porte, Texas. That’s what most people smell like to me and
others who are allergic to commercial perfumes.
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Love and peace to all,
Debbie Jordan
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