A Call to Action #1
If there’s one single thing that struck me from the Presidential Debate the other night, it was one audience member’s question about what we can sacrifice, as individuals, that will have a positive impact on the future.
Obama’s answer was: we must all take responsibility, right now, for how we treat the environment. Take small steps toward changing habits. Don’t think about it, do it NOW.
My God, this is so obvious! My brother had been preaching this for decades. He rinses out Ziplocs, turns off lights, doesn’t buy anything with excessive packaging and offsets his carbon footprint whenever and however he can. He leaves a small footprint on this world of ours.
My household of five has the footprint of Godzilla. We produce scary amounts of trash. We throw away too much food. Our electricity bills are astronomical. We wear clothes once and then wash them. We take long, hot showers. We drive too-big cars. We pretend to care about the earth, but we don’t care to change our habits.
Then why, I wonder, did Obama’s simple statement feel like such a call to action last Thursday? Because finally, FINALLY, I feel as though we can and MUST actully begin living more thoughtfully.
The crisis in the stock market has reminded us all that everything we take for granted could change in a heartbeat, and none of us are prepared. My mother used to tell me about her father bringing home suitcases of useless cash after the Germans lost the war and the D-Mark was devalued. I’ve seen pictures; it was a terrifying time. All the old rules were changing, and it was hard for people to accept.
I never really understood how easily we too could fall into the same old traps. We grew up comfortable, expecting to grow old comfortable. Well, this is a wake up call. We need to take responsibility for our own actions, NOW.
Friday night, I sat my kids down and we all pledged to do one thing each day, however big or small, to create less of a negative impact on the environment.
Success #1:
We bought three big plastic Gatorade bottles on the way back from the Cape today. We will wash them out and use them as water bottles.