From the category archives:

Essays

Passive Solar Post & Beam Home

by nan on 2010/03/09 · 1 comment

in Building, Eco-Building, Essays, Solar Building Series, Writings

(This is the fourth in a 10-part series. The previous post is here, or you can start at the beginning.)

My first home purchase in 1985 was a summer ‘camp.’ A retired couple from Florida spent their summers in Lee, NH on a wooded acre on the Lamprey River. Their camp was a 22′ travel trailer with a 12′x18′ living room added onto the south side. They were tired of traveling back and forth, and decided to settle in Florida year-round, so they sold, and I bought, their camp.

We finalized our transaction in early October, and I desperately and quickly needed to winterize it. This was my first experience with remodeling, but I got to put into play some of the carpentry I had learned the year before.

Jenkins Lane 1 I hired a carpenter friend to take care of the rotting roof decking and build a frame for insulation on the north side of the trailer. Then I hired a less expensive high school kid to help me insulate the frame and crawl underneath to insulate the floor, tacking chicken wire over it to hold it in place. Now I was ready for winter, but I knew I was not going to live in this summer set-up forever.

While I was working on the roof, I caught the view of the lazy Lamprey River. I decided I’d have to build a second story on my dream home to catch the view. Just then I realized an unseen bonus Jenkins Lane 6 of the property. The river was to the south, so I had solar orientation AND views! Over the winter, I watched the sun carefully. I charted its course through my living room windows, and as naturally as your heart beats, I designed a passive solar home.

I tried various floor plans, but came back to the same design over and over, because the principles of solar energy do not change. The winter weather patterns of northern New England do not change, either, unfortunately. I caught the most sun and retained the most heat with large south facing windows, small east and west windows, and a fairly closed in north wall. I took advantage of the cooling breezes off the river by placing casement windows opening south in east and west walls, and adding north and south doors to move that cool air through the house.

When I felt I had a good design, I talked to several contractors and finally hired a man who trained at The Shelter Institute in Bath, Maine. We built a post and beam house of native materials. It was super insulated with double framing and Tyvek, but today, Shelter uses SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels, ‘a high performance panelized building system. SIPs create an extremely well insulated and air tight building envelope. An efficient building envelope is a critical component in an effectively integrated green building.’)

We started in September, and in January, it was complete enough to move in (advice: don’t ever move into a home before it’s done!). It was well-insulated and sported top-notch double pane windows, and my first impression was, ‘There’s no air in here! It’s too tight!’ I’d achieved my goal of not letting heat get out, but fresh air could not get in, either. Since then, I have learned about air exchangers, and this was the perfect situation for one.

The following winter, I took a road trip out west. As I was driving across southern California and Arizona, I was amazed and thrilled with the endless sun! The idealist in me wondered why there were no solar power plants. This was unheard of back then (1987) unlike talk of it today. Just as that question crossed my mind, I came upon the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station fifty miles west of Phoenix on I-10. In my naiveté, I was appalled and angered.

I was determined to solarize the world!

Fast forward to 1999, and I was raising two girls in Taos in a rambling 1964 ranch house.

(Originally published at www.greenbuyguide.com.)

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Please Call Us Women, Not Girls

by nan on 2010/03/08 · 0 comments

in Essays, Opinions, Writings

(In observation of Women’s History Month and today, March 8, International Women’s Day.)

I am grateful to have grown up in the 1960s, when the capitalistic post-war, consumptive era was challenged. Corporations, money, power and greed were eschewed and swapped out for a spiritual, back-to-the-land, anti-war stance that embraced all beings as equal. It was truly a revolution.

Women have struggled for equality since the beginning of time, but what we know now as The Women’s Movement has been sporadically active since the early 1800s. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the focus was Women’s Suffrage, which birthed women’s right to vote.

The movement picked up steam and blossomed again in the 60s as part of the massive cultural changes of the times. It was called the Women’s Liberation Movement, and its focus was freedom from male dominance and oppression. Women wanted equality, not discrimination, socially, culturally and politically.

Business and politics were run by white, wealthy, educated males. Men were seen as more important and valuable, and their jobs were held in higher esteem than women’s jobs. Women were considered lesser beings, who existed to serve them, and it showed in the way men spoke to and about them, for instance, referring to them as ‘girls.’

My dad called his receptionist ‘my girl,’ even though she was in her late 20s and not his daughter. I worked in an office when I was 21, and we were ‘the girls in Larry’s office,’ even though my female supervisor had children about my age.

It’s degrading.

Men want to be considered men, but insist on considering us girls – lesser than them, not adults. A small change in terminology would give us more respect, put us on a more level playing field and bring us that much closer to equality. When men use the word ‘women,’ we feel respected, and men gain respect by recognizing our value. The word ‘girl’ connotes a prepubescent female still dependent, weak and needy, and I don’t know any woman who wants that projected onto her.

I posed this question of terminology to several friends last week and asked for their thoughts on men referring to grown women as ‘girls.’ I used these examples to make my point:

> A man comes home from a store, and says, ‘The girl behind the counter was very helpful,’ even though that woman may be 40 years old. A woman would never come home, and say, ‘That boy behind the counter was very helpful,’ when she was dealing with a 40 year old man. We never refer to men as boys, but they insist on calling us girls. This keeps us from being equal.

> In the workplace, when men consider women to be girls, the message is that we are lesser and unable to move up. This perpetuates the idea that men and their jobs are more valuable, and psychologically, it keeps capable women from feeling confident enough to advance. It takes a lot of work on a woman’s part to be recognized for her work. Even if she is, Gloria Steinem recently said that women are making ’70-some cents on the (male) dollar.’ If men thought of and treated us as valuable and productive women instead of little girls, I think this would change, and equality would be closer.

Here are some responses from my women friends:

“Continuing to call women, girls, is a way to keep women second class citizens and perpetuate the myth that we can’t take care of ourselves. It’s men that put language in the health care bill that will limit women’s rights to be in charge of their own health care, women’s right to privacy. Calling me a girl as standard is NOT ok. I am not a fifty-something girl. I have earned the right to be ‘woman’…..we all did! It’s called RESPECT!”

“I’m single, independent and do have men friends. If they ever referred to me as a ‘girl’ or ‘doll’ or ‘dear,’ I would find it degrading. I would question what they thought of me and would feel like I was a second rate citizen.”

“Don’t you hate it when they call us ‘ladies’ in a condescending tone of voice?”

“I used to be really pissy about being called a ‘girl’ but now I’m more relaxed. I certainly see that it demeans women, but I think the way it is used is important.”

“Here’s another thing to consider: why does girl necessarily imply weak and helpless? Why not associate the term with youthful vigor, potential, energetic innocence?”

“I’ve been employed in male-dominated industries for the bulk of my professional life. Succeeded in most. I let ‘girls’ roll off my back and let my work speak for me. …. Men value results. Produce. Do. Show. … It doesn’t mean that we need to conform to a ‘man’s world.’ What it does mean, I think, is that we need to look inward and validate our own worth, irrespective of externally applied labels. … You can call me bitch, girl, babe, hun, shug, c*nt ,…whatever. That’s not my concern – it’s the warped value system of the person labeling me that creates and assigns the label.”

Pretty powerful women! Those are certainly not the thoughts of girls!

I asked a few men if they used the word ‘girls’ to talk about women:

“Individually, I usually carefully refer to females after college as women. Generically, however, I often refer to females as girls and males as guys up to say 50. Then they become men and women.” I asked this friend if this is an issue with his partner, and he said yes and that she corrects him.

“I would say ‘the girl at the counter’ if she were a girl. I’m very conscious of NOT referring to someone that way if she’s old enough or mature enough, and I really can’t say how I determine that. But except for speaking ironically or as a term of endearment (to my wife), I don’t call women ‘girls.’ It sounds like something my father would have said. Like out of the ’40s or something.”

The men are making a conscious effort to realize the difference. I appreciate that.

I believe a simple change in terminology would begin to level the playing field. It’s so simple to change one word to affect major change in our society and ourselves. It is said that if you do something for three weeks, it becomes habit. It is also said that when you change a thought, your perspective changes. Changing ‘girl’ to ‘woman’ would, no doubt, be a positive change for everyone.

Please call us women, not girls.

Interesting reading:

The Women’s Liberation Movement: Its Origins, Structures and Ideas

‘Beer Man’ and ‘Beer Girl’

Head to head: ‘Girls’ or women?

I’m a “Woman,” not a “Girl,” You Sexist Shit Head

Feminist Movement, Wikipedia

Why Sexist Language Matters

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On the Road to Building Solar Greenhouses

by nan on 2010/03/02 · 2 comments

in Building, Eco-Building, Essays, Solar Building Series, Writings

(This is the third in a 10-part series. The previous post is here, or you can start at the beginning.)

After graduating from UNH, I worked on a couple of vegetable farms and a u-pick fruit farm and did some landscaping. What I really wanted to do, though, was build solar greenhouses. I called a local company that retrofitted them onto existing homes. The owner was excited about my enthusiasm. Remember, this was the early 80s, solar was not an everyday word yet, and not many women were carpenters.

In our initial phone call, he asked if I had any carpentry experience, or if I at least knew the terminology. Although I’d wanted to be an architect my whole life, I didn’t have the knowledge he needed. He suggested I work in a cabinet shop for six months to a year to learn carpentry basics. He recommended a shop to me, where I got a job right away. I was excited to get started on this new path! (photo: flickr pixelviz)

I built cabinet doors for several months. I played with pine, oak, cherry, maple and birch studying their grains and the differences in how they looked and felt, how each acted with a saw and a sander, and how each responded to stain and varnish. It was quite an education, and I loved it!

I spent a lot of my day sanding those beautiful raw woods. The orbital sander was my pal. I came home covered in and throughout with sawdust every night. It was exhausting, physical work, and the conditions were far from ideal, but I never lost sight of my plan to build solar greenhouses.

After six months of radial arm saws, table saws, circular saws and joiners, the lesson I learned was that I didn’t like power tools. The orbital sander remained my friend, but the rest were bigger and scarier than me. (photo: flickr Let Ideas Compete)

There went my carpentry career!

When I left the cabinet shop, I took my newly acquired knowledge of building, terminology and woods along with the few hand tools I had to buy. Little did I know the following year would bring me my first energy-efficient remodel.

Keep reading….

(Originally published at www.greenbuyguide.com.)

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Solar Gardening

by nan on 2010/02/16 · 1 comment

in Building, Eco-Building, Energy, Essays, Gardening, Solar Building Series, Writings

(This is the second of a 10-part series. Previous post here.)

At the University of New Hampshire, my Soils Science teacher, Art LeClair, turned me on to solar energy. He was my favorite teacher – enthusiastic, intelligent, knowledgeable, experimental, fun and funny. I naturally absorbed what he conveyed.

On a winter field trip, our Soils class visited Solar Survival in Harrisville, NH. This was the home and lab of Leandre and Gretchen Poisson, authors of ‘Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way.’ They grew food all winter in frigid, frozen, snowed-in northern New England using solar pods, which they developed.

A solar pod is a 4′x8′ cold frame surrounded on the outside with rigid foam insulation and buried partially in the ground. The lid is not a piece of glass or an old window, like a typical cold frame. It is an arch of two layers of Kalwall® greenhouse glazing with Angel Hair, a fine and translucent, yet heavy duty, insulation, sandwiched in between.

The thermal mass inside the pod is a black 55-gallon drum filled with water and laid on its side at the north end. During the day, the water absorbs the sun’s heat and slowly radiates it back out over night.

This photo from the book is a series of pods lined up end to end. You can clearly see the drum laying on its side at the far end of the front center pod.

The translucence of the insulation is key. It must transmit enough solar energy in low-light winter for healthy plant growth and to warm the water in the drum to a high enough temperature that it can radiate heat on a cold New Hampshire night.

My friend, Hugh, and I partnered up in lab to build a solar pod. We didn’t get to grow anything in it, but witnessing that process at Solar Survival was proof enough that it worked. After that field trip and construction project, I was completely sold on solar energy!

Art shared another source of information with us, a book by Rick Fisher and Bill Yanda of Zomeworks in Santa Fe, New Mexico, called ‘The Food and Heat Producing Solar Greenhouse.’ It was published in 1980 and already out of print the following year. Solar hadn’t caught on yet, so I guess it was not deemed an important book. I tracked down a copy, though (remember, this was way before Amazon and used books!), and studied it as though I was having an exam on it. I now have a dog-eared copy (photo), which I repeatedly refer to, because, like I said last week, solar principles never change.

After my first semester at UNH, my love for solar construction and New Mexico was burgeoning.

Keep reading…

(Glazing and insulation materials to build Poisson’s solar pod and solar cones are available from Solar Components.

(Originally published at www.greenbuyguide.com.)

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Buy Nothing for Valentine’s Day

by nan on 2010/02/10 · 6 comments

in Essays, Opinions, Writings

Valentine’s Day – another consumptive holiday. A lot of money will be spent this week to show we care about someone. Must we buy millions of boxes of chocolates, endless Hallmark cards, and roses that will die on Monday?

Why do we have to buy something to show someone we care about them? Why is love and affection so materialistic?

These holidays make me crazy! Be sure I’ll write about unnecessary mass consumption again at Easter.

And why do we cram our loving into a day here and a day there? Didn’t we just do this six weeks ago at Christmas time? Love should be shown and sown every day, and not with stuff!

Tell someone every day you care about them by saying… I love you. Or… I like you. Or… You’re a friend I can’t do without. Do something for them instead of buying them a token gift.

> Make your lover, friend or family member a meal, or go out to eat. We all need to eat, and sharing meal time is very special.

> Make a card with pics from magazines you have laying around that you will not read again. Homemade gifts are cherished!

> Send an e-card.

> Give someone a picture of yourself.

> Write a poem or song.

> Make a phone call.

> Make several phone calls.

> Offer to be available when they need an extra hand.

> Let them know you are always there for them.

Tell everyone you love them without a tangible item! It can be done!

The other problem with holidays like this is that people without lovers feel very left out. Their ‘aloneness’ is magnified by the ads, the shopping and the stories of gifts, dinners and romance on Feb 15. The same holds true at Thanksgiving and Christmas – these are very lonely holidays for those without a lot of love in their lives. But that’s another essay for another time, maybe next November?

Make an effort this Valentine’s Day to ‘go green’ not by buying organic chocolate or locally grown, organic roses, but by buying nothing at all. Personally connect with your lovers, friends and family in a non-materialistic way, the way we boycott Black Friday with Buy Nothing Day. Do good deeds, talk to them, break bread with them. That will be more memorable than wondering where to dump that wilting dozen roses on Monday evening.

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Solar Energy is Not New

by nan on 2010/02/09 · 1 comment

in Building, Eco-Building, Energy, Essays, Solar Building Series, Writings

Greetings to all you energy conscious, eco-minded folks! I hope you are ready to read about solar energy and green building in this 10-part series! I’d like to start with a little background, though, so you can see:

• Solar has been around for a long time.
• Energy efficiency is not trendy.
• I’m a credible source.

Solar energy is not new. It has been around for as long as the sun! Did you ever notice that the cliff dwellings of indigenous peoples, such as the Anasazi, face south? Over a thousand years ago, people understood the power of the sun. They built their dwellings facing south to capture the sun’s winter warmth. The rocks absorbed the heat and released it slowly after dark. Cliff dwellings were also built under overhangs to shade out the high summer sun. (photo: flickr PhillipC)

The principles of solar energy have not changed in thousands of years, and we use them in building today. As energy prices remain unstable, passive solar and other energy efficient building methods are becoming more important. Many communities, such as Taos, New Mexico, where I live, are putting energy efficient requirements into their building codes. (graphic: NM Solar Energy Assoc)

We must incorporate more renewable energy, because fossil fuels are finite. They will not be here forever to heat and cool our homes, and as they get depleted, prices will rise. We cannot create more oil, natural gas and coal, but the sun, wind and water will always be available.

Fossil fuels also cause political struggle, greed and other negative energies. No one needs to die in the battle for fossil fuels when the sun, wind and water can supply our energy needs.

Your home is the first place to begin saving energy. According to the EPA, buildings in the US account for:

• 39 percent of total energy use
• 12 percent of the total water consumption
• 68 percent of total electricity consumption
• 38 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions

It is clear that saving energy in your home will have a positive impact on the planet and your wallet. An energy-efficient home is also a buffer against fuel price increases.

Energy efficient homes are my passion. I have wanted to be an architect since I was about six years old. I played with Legos more often than Barbie dolls. My passion for homes, solar energy and all things eco drove me to become a Certified EcoBroker®, a Realtor® specializing in green homes.

I’ve been attracted to the sun since my Lego days, too. Maybe I was an Anasazi in a previous life. Or maybe the large sunny window in my childhood room had an effect on me. My mom turned my room into a greenhouse after I grew up and moved out. Whenever I came home, I slept with geraniums and orchids without complaint.

I was always outdoors, too, running in the woods, catching frogs in the brook, or marveling at pansy faces and the multicolor sheen of Japanese beetles. I knew at a young age I was part of the natural world.

At 25, I got a grounds-keeping job at a large summer resort. I was in my element, working with plants and being outside every day. This was my first experience with a greenhouse, though.

The Wentworth by the Sea in Newcastle, NH had a greenhouse where we started from seed all the plants for the hundreds of lavish flower gardens. We mixed our own potting soils, transplanted seedlings into the ground, mulched, weeded, watered, fertilized, cleaned up in fall and spread composted manure on the beds in November. After eight heavenly months at the Wentworth, I wanted to study horticulture. I enrolled at the University of New Hampshire’s Thompson School of Applied Science for the fall of 1980.

There my solar studies began.

Keep reading….

(Originally published at www.greenbuyguide.com.)

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Reduce Heat Loss with Ceiling Insulation

by nan on 2010/02/01 · 2 comments

in Building, Eco-Building, Energy, Essays, Writings

Hot air rises. That principle propels hot air balloons off the ground and over the Rio Grande Gorge here in Taos, NM. Hot air fills the balloon, and it naturally ascends.

That same principle comes into play in your home. You heat your home, and the warmed air goes to the ceiling. If the insulation in your ceiling is minimal or lacking, heat escapes, increasing your energy bills and wasting precious fuel.

I heat with wood and have a ceiling fan. I had noticed over the years during power outages, when the fan was not spinning, the house felt much cooler, even with a hot fire going. I became curious about the insulation in the attic.

A friend and I opened up the access panel and took a look around. Pink fiberglass insulation had been blown in a long time ago, so it was not very thick. I called an insulation company, and when the man came out to look, he said it had an R value of about 19.

The R value of insulation says how well it resists heat transfer. The higher the number, the more resistance it has. There are certain minimums that the building code requires. For ceilings, it is R38.

I had two options, the man said. I could add R19 or R30. I wasn’t sure that what I saw in the attic was R19. It seemed thinner in places, so if I added R19, I might be up to code with R38. I opted for R30 to be on the energy efficient side, for an approximate total of R49.

remodelimg_3550

There is no rule that says you can’t do more than what the building code says. Code is a required minimum. You are free to do more, and that’s what I did. There probably is a cut-off point, though, where what you put in doesn’t contribute anymore to energy loss, but I don’t know what that is.

As expected, the heat is staying in the house. The ceiling fan is not the necessity it was. I still use it, as it does distribute the heat, but without it, the difference is barely noticeable.

Since I heat with wood, energy savings are hard to calculate. Considerations are the wood itself, how often I am home and how stormy or sunny it is (I have sunny south facing windows for daytime heating). These things are different each winter, so there is no norm for comparison.

I can approximate that I am burning approximately two cords less per year at a cost of $150 each. That is a savings of $300 per year. The cost of the R30 insulation was $900, so my payback time is three years. As the cost of wood goes up, and it will, my payback time will be quicker.

The added benefit is my comfort level. The house is much warmer, and I spend less time tending the fire. Human comfort and quality of life are as important as saving energy. They just doesn’t have a price tag.

(Ceiling insulation is just as necessary where summer cooling is more important that winter heat. The insulation keeps the sun’s heat from penetrating into the living space, which keeps cooling costs down.)

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The Day the Washer Died

by nan on 2010/01/30 · 0 comments

in Building, Eco-Building, Essays, Writings

Washing clothes in cold water is an effective way to save energy, but the cold, alkaline well water here in the West does not get clothes clean. I’ve always washed our clothes in warm water, and this was getting expensive as the cost of propane was dramatically rising back in 2005. My propane bill was also skyrocketing with girls turning into teens taking daily showers.

When I looked at how I could cut my energy use, I knew I had to reduce my propane bill. I was filling my 125 gallon tank four times a year at a cost of over $200 each time at $2 per gallon. That was more than $800 per year, just for hot water and cooking.

Fewer showers were out of the question, so it was a matter of getting a more efficient washing machine.

I had that chance when the pump in my beloved 1978 Kenmore top loading washer died once again. Not wanting to resurrect it for a third time, I researched front loading washers on the Energy Star website, and found that the Kenmore HE2t was one of the most energy efficient of its type. I bit the bullet, and in the spring, shelled out $1200 for it and the pedestal it sits on.

Front loaders use 1/3 the water of a top loader. This cuts your energy bill for hot water and reduces your water bill. Front loaders also have such fast spin cycles that the clothes come out with less moisture in them. This reduces drying time, which further cuts your energy bill.

I was expecting to fill my propane tank that July. When I didn’t need propane until October, I realized the results of my purchase. Instead of filling up every three months, I could wait six months. I had literally cut my propane bill in half! At $2/gallon, this washer would have paid for itself in three years. When propane went over $3/gallon, my payback time was shortened to two years.

An energy efficient purchase, be it a home, appliance or car, may cost a little more, but that extra cost is offset by the energy savings. This is a lesson we all must learn to alleviate the fear of making a planet-wise purchase. Your money will come back to you in energy savings.

Remember, too, that every time you save energy, you lighten your impact on the planet by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. It also helps us become less dependent on fossil fuels. Energy conservation is win-win!

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No Need to ‘Go Green’ – Part 4

by nan on 2010/01/28 · 0 comments

in Environment, Essays, Writings

(I wrote this series, because, for years, people have asked me how I got so ‘green.’ Hopefully this will provide some insight and give you ideas about how to live simply and appreciate the natural world of which you are a part. Read Part 1, The 50s, 60s & 70s, Part 2, The 80s, New Hampshire and Part 3, The 80s, Simplified by Traveling.)

The 90s – Raising a Family and Beyond

Amazingly enough, when I began to raise a family, I was in close contact with the woman I mentioned in Part 3, who had lived with no money for several years. Her lifestyle was one of the simplest I’d ever seen. She knew how to survive buying nothing, not using disposable anything, creating what she didn’t have, and growing most of her own food. I felt blessed to be in her sphere and under her tutelage.

Diapers

Despite having a one year old, she gave me some of her cloth diapers to get me started. One valuable piece of information she shared was to simply rinse out pee diapers and hang them in the disinfecting New Mexico sun, then reuse. Do you know how much water this saved, as well as trips to the laundromat?

Instead of baby wipes, we had a huge stash of two different color washcloths – one color for pee, one for poop (preferably a light color to see when they needed washing). They were put under hot water and onto the baby’s butt, then rinsed out really well, and, again, hung in the NM sun. This took a little thought and planning, but I have never used a disposable wipe on either of my kids.

For my own sanity, I did use disposable diapers at night. Getting up in the night and turning lights on to change a diaper was making me crazy with sleep deprivation, so I had to do something. I called them ‘nightie diapers,’ since we just used them at night. I didn’t feel good about it, but sometimes our choices have to take into account our quality of life as well as the planet.

Clothes

This woman taught me to replace rubber pants with woolen diaper covers. We made them from sweaters found at thrift stores and yard sales, then washed in hot water to shrink them. It’s the same as that high-dollar boiled wool jacket you can buy at LLBean. Or consider it felting. It’s simply shrinking the wool, which is absorbent, keeping the baby dry and warm.

Since we were both fabric junkies, we made sunbonnets and small baby quilts out of scrap fabric. I eventually had to make gifts for pregnant friends of mine. Your own child can only use so many quilts and hats!

I had already been frequenting yard sales for clothes. There is no need to buy new baby clothes EVER! New and practically new clothes are in abundance at yard sales and thrift stores. Kids outgrow them before they can wear them out, and they pile up fast at home.

Food

When my daughter started eating solid food, I learned to mash up what I was eating. I bought a small food mill, put a few teaspoons of soft food in it with a bit of water and cranked it for a few seconds. Instant organic baby food, without the expense and jars piling up.

A friend had returned from Hawaii, and he gifted us with a bowl and spoon he’d made of coconut shell. Talk about earth friendly! Coconut shells are almost indestructible, which you probably know, if you’ve ever tried to crack one open. It would last through many children and return to the earth when necessary. I loved that!

The Future

Obviously, that baby girl born in 1990 turns 20 this year. My mind is foggy over many details of her little green life. When my second daughter was due in 1994, I reached back into my green baby info database, and set to work.

She was born at home on the living room couch after much walking, soaking, walking, pushing and waiting. I wrapped her in a quilt made from scraps.

I made her diapers from a layer each of terrycloth and flannel in the name of frugality. It was much cheaper than buying them, and when she was done with them, they became household rags. They held up for many years!

As I raised these two beauties, my frugal/green/eco-friendly lifestyle was what they learned. As rebellious teenagers, they have told me to ‘Get off the green thing, mom!’, but I know I’ve given them a good foundation they can fall back on when they are ready. If the world keeps spinning as it is, politically and climatically, they may need that green thing I taught them.

So that’s the story of how I got so green. Part of it was innate, but as you saw, I had some influential people around me. I hope I’ve answered some questions and helped you in your quest for a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

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Climate Change or Day-to-Day Survival?

by nan on 2010/01/04 · 0 comments

in Environment, Essays, Opinions, Writings

I have long said that people are not going to voluntarily make changes towards energy efficiency and conservation unless they are personally hard hit. When gas was $4.50 a couple years ago, SUV sales took a nose dive. Gas went down to $2, and SUV sales went back up. When people feel the pinch themselves in a tangible and obvious way, they will change.

We are very self-centered! Our main question when making decisions is ‘What’s in it for me?’ We are always thinking only of ourselves.

So, naturally, since climate change is a slow process (slow and seemingly invisible to the average Joe, but happening faster than anticipated), people don’t see it, don’t feel affected by it, and don’t act on it. There is nothing in it for them immediately if they make changes in their lifestyles. Until something dramatic is at their doorstep, they will not budge.

I think climate change has been an extra hard sell in the past year, due to the economy. I keep reading that people took more action to conserve and reduce their carbon footprints in years preceding 2009, although it is a more dire situation today.

I venture a guess that people today are more concerned with keeping their jobs and homes than with climate change. Their priority is to pay the bills, keep eating and keep working. Not everyone has been lucky enough to satisfy these basic needs, judging by rising unemployment rates, foreclosures and increased activity at food banks and other human resource services.

Consequently, a few global degrees seem miniscule compared to what people are personally facing today. They are spending their emotional and physical energy to survive instead of ‘going green.’

There is no saying which situation is worse – climate change or the economy – but I hope it all improves soon. I am hopeful that people will not wait for the worst to happen to make energy conscious lifestyle changes once they get back on their feet. And I will keep talking, writing and educating to effect as much change as I can.

(This post was inspired by Global Warming a Tough Sell for the Human Psyche by Malcolm Ritter.)

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