green revelations

One of the things I discuss from time to time on this blog, other than method (wha? What? How can that be? Isn't it called method lus... yeah, yeah, hold on there.) is environmentalism. - Earth friendliness. (And method's all about that! So yeah, see, I'm still talking method.) I'm working hard to change my ways. I'm not perfect, far from it. But I'm trying. And like this article I'm about to share, I need to try harder.

One of the things I honestly hear over and over from my friends about method products is "they're too expensive." They forget just why they are paying a little more money (it's for the children, and puppies, and all the kittens in the world! Ok, I jest a little, but no, it's sorta true, too!) I found this great article on sustainable style fashion, and thought I'd share it with you:

"I have a confession to make: I am a terrible person. Now, I don’t produce child porn, I’m not in charge of a human trafficking ring or anything--I don’t even honk my horn when I’m driving (which I don’t do very often). See, these things are all obvious, big terrible things in which to partake. My crimes are much more slippery. I commit them in thousands of tiny decisions each week—decisions I make because I’m tired, or broke, or late and unorganized. It’s only after a while, when I’ve realized how far I’ve slipped from my original intentions that the guilt of my sins begins to weigh on me. It’s only then when I start feeling like a hypocrite, when the guilt makes me clench my jaw at night and I get defensive over every little thing, that I know I need to make a change.

I am a young, well-educated, recently graduated 22-year-old woman. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. My best friend has convinced me that the apocalypse is coming, perhaps related to peak oil, rapidly approaching in 2012. Last year I wrote a paper on the true state of organics, where I investigated how good organic farming really is for the environment. For the first time in my life I am living on my own and I have total control over what I do with my money and myself, but I am not upholding my beliefs. It is time for me to try harder.

Last night my roommate and I got in a fight over some vegetables. On the way home, we happened by this fruit and vegetable stand with awesome looking stuff at dirt-cheap prices. We stocked up, and I was thrilled at the giant load and the tiny bill. Later, he lamented over all the pesticides we’d be eating, all the guilt he felt for not buying local and organic stuff. It’s not fair trade. It’s genetically modified. It’s covered in pesticides. It’s from so far away. Think of all the oil! And the workers! And your body!

I got mad. We can’t afford all organic food! It’s so privileged to be able to! I’m not a yuppie! Fine, let’s just throw it all away, would you like that!!??

It’s a tough thing, to be criticized for the way you live. It’s tough, after making all these rationalizations as to why, at this particular store, at this particular time, it’s okay to buy conventional. It’s especially hard to see all the milks, side by side, ranging from $2.99 to $5.99 and picking the more expensive one. But the thing is, regardless of all the ways in which I think it might be better for me, when I make the decision to buy conventional, I am not alone. If I can’t make the change, as a young, educated person who believes all the hoopla and searches “apocalypse” and “2012 peak oil” just to freak herself out on a regular basis, what does that mean for the rest of the population? If it’s so easy for me to make it okay not to buy local organics and other green products, many other people must be making the same decisions.

For me, it all comes down to this: If you type “peak oil” into wikipedia, it will tell you that depending on how quickly supplies become scarce, and depending on how much we have prepared alternative energy sources for the occasion (which isn’t much), the chain reaction might cause a global depression that may lead to the collapse of global industrial civilization as we know it. Now, regardless of whether all of this actually happens, things have got to change. It might already be too late! In any case, I want to start trying to live differently now. I want to save energy, reduce my impact on the planet, and stop benefiting from the exploitation of workers worldwide. And if that means buying milk for $5 instead of $3, well, that doesn’t seem too bad anymore, does it? - Ari"