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editorial: Am i living green?
By Lisa Carvin
10/03/2007
This week, the first week in October, 2007, I have the rather dubious, inauspicious honor of turning 43 years old. Born in 1964, as one of the last persons to exit the “Baby Boom” generation and one of the first to enter “Generation X,” I spent young adulthood thriving on John Hughes’ films and New Wave music, typing college term papers on basic electronic and even sticky-keyed manual typewriters (word processors and micro-computers in every household had not yet become a reality) and driving a Honda Civic hatchback in order to be fuel-efficient, back when gasoline had not quite hit the one dollar-a-gallon mark in the Southeastern United States. As a child, I had the choice of two or three local television channels to watch and thought that was pretty generous and extravagant. War, or the threat of war, was afar off and something I studied in retrospect in History class.
Now, in the 21st century, with all the pressing issues I must concern myself with as a middle-ager, including the rearing of a teenage child, I feel it necessary to additionally ask myself the odd-sounding question: “Am I living green?”
Even prior to the release of former Vice President, Al Gore’s controversial book, An Inconvenient Truth and the organizing of Gore’s landmark “Live Earth” concert event held ‘round the globe in 2007 which starred environmentally-conscious glitterati from Madonna to The Police and everyone in between, I would like to think that the answer is, “Of course I am.” I have always been environmentally-conscious and responsible. I never throw trash anywhere other than into a proper receptacle and do not tolerate littering from my children. I was one of the first staffers in my former Sales office at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach to consistently throw paper trash and soda cans into their respective recycling bins. A lover of animals, I disdain hunting for sport and stopped wearing anything but synthetic fur circa 1985. I have always striven to turn out the lights, shut down computers and other electrical appliances whenever I’d left my home or place(s) of business. Do not those acts automatically “make me green”?
Truer to the title of the late, great puppeteer, Jim Henson’s song written for his beloved Muppet character, Kermit the Frog, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” Enter the unusual-sounding term, “carbon footprints.” According to Wikipedia, a carbon footprint is “the total amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted over the full life cycle of a product or service.” Wikipedia goes on to explain that unnecessary C02 released into the atmosphere and insidiously depleting the atmosphere’s ozone layer has been deemed to be one of the primary causes for gradual climate change, or “global warming.” Unchecked, global warming has been [rightly or wrongly] attributed to everything from El Niño /La Niña weather conditions and hurricane formation to the potential of future catastrophic meltdown of the polar ice caps.
With such unwarranted alarmism? warranted concern? (Reader decide.), we are seeing the proliferation of websites like Conservation International’s (http://www.conservation.org), in which citizens of Mother Earth such as you and I may calculate, based on scientific opinion? Verifiable fact? how much carbon dioxide we unintentionally spew into the atmosphere based on mere activities of daily living. I decided to submit to their online test and submitted my own personal lifestyle criteria. Let’s see…I live in a three-bedroom home with my spouse and two kids (wait – I mustn’t forget the pet guinea pig!), and just by virtue of this, I am guilty of outputting 1.4 tons of C02 per year. Our family sport-utility vehicle, which is not a massive Cadillac Escalade, Hummer H2 or Chevy Suburban, but rather, a much more compact Scion XB spews an unthinkable 12.8 tons of C02 per year. Admittedly, even though it’s the healthier choice, I am not a vegan, eating little more than leafy green salads, bran flakes and soy milk; I instead enjoy a nice, juicy cheeseburger now and then. For this infraction (eating meat and dairy?), 3.8 tons of C02 proliferates throughout our pristine environment. The website then goes on to do the math, chastising this anti-littering, non-fur-wearing advocate as being responsible for damaging our ozone layer to the tune of 18.1 tons of C02 per year. Feeling exceedingly guilty and downtrodden, I have opted to munch some celery sticks for lunch, shut down my computer, turn off the lights and take a nap. Hopefully respiration (breathing) will not be injurious to the atmosphere’s ozone layer.
So, am I, indeed, “living green”? I imagine the answer to be “yes, much of the time.” However, when held up to the closest scrutiny, a more accurate answer might be, “not all the time.” It behooves us all to ask ourselves the same question. Then, furthermore, it is our responsibility, as citizens of this fragile planet to do whatever we can to observe, conserve and preserve. Right-wing/left-wing politics and rhetoric aside, we owe this to our children. And the generations to come.