The EnvironmentTM

Can I be grumpy for a moment? 

There are times when I'm throwing away some shipping filler and feel very very guilty about how much trash we generate. We try. We have made a bunch of small and also some huge life changes to try to adjust downwardly our family's affect on the environment. We try to minimize our consumption of products that have a high carbon footprint, or are non-renewable resources.

And I feel guilty and overwhelmed about it. A lot.

We have already committed not to flying or cruising until they figure out a more environmentally-friendly way to do that. We buy lots of cleaning and soap products that are concentrated so we refill glass or metal containers instead of buying plastic cartons of detergent, all-purpose cleaners, and other household items. Now that electric cars are old enough to be in the $15,000 range, we plan to buy those next time we need vehicles (but we'll drive ours into the ground, first; environmentally-friendly, yes... but also cheapskate). We try to run bulk errands and stay home as much as possible. I try only to buy clothes second-hand, for myself and for the kids. We keep our a/c at 76 (we'd leave it at 78 but the house is drafty) and our heater at 67. We are trying to build a smaller, more well-insulated home using recycled or low-impact materials, like the 18 cypress beams James bought from a 200-year-old home that was dismantled; or cob that is made from straw, dirt, and water...

Then I drive around and see these 5000-square-foot houses being built just up the road from us. They pull down every tree and pave everything. (Click here if you want to read an alarming article about concrete. We're going to try to do a rock foundation, or a combination of rocks and bags filled with road base.) Then they build houses using stick-framing, and make them much larger than most people actually need. Why do 4 people need hundreds of square feet each? Even if you entertain occasionally? I don't get it.

Why do businesses continue to pack things in plastic? We try to separate for recycling, but only 9% of it actually is recycled. 

Why do I, personally, feel such a strong responsibility to care for the environment in the face of increased catastrophic weather events, knowing that the poorest of our fellow earth-dwellers are losing their homes and dying while the rest of us are temporarily spared the greatest impact... but people in our government still yell, "But jobs!" when faced with our imploring to DO SOMETHING? Who cares about the jobs you save if everyone drowns in 30 years?

It is tempting just to keep going as per usual and not worry about it, since I can't affect real change. It's tempting to decide not to think or worry about it. But I know that's not the answer either. I'm not sure what else we should be doing to encourage big polluters to stop. I HATE that people are demanding remote workers go back into overly-cooled offices, driving more and adding more carbon to the atmosphere. It's all just so... overwhelming. And it feels hopeless when over-consumption is still de rigueur.

Then there's the whole thing where housing is too expensive, but no one wants to change building codes to allow for higher-density affordable housing. And some people own two or three or more homes, just for vacations... It's just such a callous treatment of the limited resources we have available to us. And I'm pissed about it, but I also feel impotent. Anyone else??