As the news of global financial instability continues to trickle into our lives, I am very moved by a sense of responsibility to find ways of easing the burden on our Mother Earth. This has many ramifications, and my interest in bringing as many of those possibilities to full view has lead me to study and experiment.
Health of our own bodies has always been an important concern. However, the global impact of the dramatic advances in science and technology has really only just started to be truly understood. Add to this the lifestyle choices that we have been making as civilized nations: travel, recreation, commerce and farming, to name a few, have also been seen to have a huge impact. The inadvertent introduction of toxins and pollutants into our homes over the past 50 years has led to all manner of studies with sometimes very alarming results.
Fortunately, we now have many options available that have been developed as a response to the information continually finding its way to us. The use of the buzz word ‘green’ to generally describe these products, this way of thinking, these solutions, has become common place. It has also, unfortunately, lead to devious advertising and distorted information. At the end of the day, what are we looking for?
Over the years it has become apparent that the answer to that question is fairly complex. It’s not just the ingredients list that needs scrutiny and evaluation for their effect on me, my family and my home. It’s also the place of manufacture and the distance it needed to travel for my consumption. Also, the quantity of energy the item itself consumed to become what it is. That includes the raw materials, the packaging, and the printing as well as the use or disposal of the by-products along the way. Then there is the extent of the useful life of this product and the energy consumption while in service that also needs careful consideration. Did I really need it, if both the longer term and intrinsic ‘value’ is seen to present so high a cost? Could this valuable resource be better used elsewhere, or not at all?
There are many publications to help understand these issues more fully. Being educated is a primary step towards being able to make a difference. You may be interested in taking a simple test to evaluate your own carbon footprint. That is to say, how much fossil fuel the major choices you are making are consuming, and therefore how many tons of co2 you are contributing to global warming. There are a few of these tests out there, and I found this one to be more comprehensive than most: www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
