The Accidental Environmentalist: You Might Be Green

I once tried to be a vegetarian. The draw of thinly sliced deli roast beef sucked me away from that path. I don't eat meat all the time, though, so while I eat cow-bits here and there, I don't eat them as often as the average American. I can't claim to be a vegetarian, as much as I admire the earthy image that word evokes, but I can claim to have made some difference in my diet. Being green is similar to being a vegetarian, whether or not it includes being one. To be something doesn't require an invisible all-or nothing definition.

Being frugal is green. If you don't buy a lot of stuff, you don't waste a lot of stuff. Frugal people reduce, reuse and recycle because it saves money. Frugal people turn the lights off and power down appliances to save on the electric bill. They reuse so-called disposable items, and they buy used items. The Great Depression birthed a nation of green people. My grandmother used old clothes to make quilts and reused glass jars for her own pickling.

Your green thumb is really green. Whether you are a vegetable gardener, a flower gardener, herb gardener or kitchen window-sill gardener, you're decreasing a carbon foot-print by at least an inch. The best fertilizer for plants is compost, and if you are a really avid gardener, you compost all your veggie parts, coffee grinds, egg shells, fish bones and yard waste. That saves precious land from becoming a wasteland. Some folks put egg shells and coffee grinds on there patio plants. If you're a quaint patio or window gardener, you might just save the coffee grinds and egg shells for your plant pets. If you make good dirt, you help the Earth.

If you don't drive, you're semi-green. If you take public transportation, you are minimizing fuel usage by pooling it into one large vehicle with a large group of other accidental green people. If you walk, not only are you reducing the fuel costs, but you are saving landfills from the eventual junking of your vehicle, and you've reduced the factory output of carbon emissions released during vehicle production. You've also reduced the amount of non-renewable resources needed to manufacture an entire vehicle.

Crafty people reuse objects. If you are creative, you see the unintended uses for all sorts of materials. Crafty folk may not be trying to save money when they see the beautiful math behind an egg carton. They just like the design of something and use it in a new way. Crafty people thrive on the challenge of using something in a new way, so if some milk crates and an old wooden painting would make a gorgeous desk right now, why would a crafty person buy a new desk?

If you are self-sufficient, you save the Earth. You don't want to rely on the government or on some corporation for your daily needs. You'll work for what you need, and if you need something, you want to do your best to be in control of how and when you get it. Self-sufficient people might grow their own herbs, make their own clothing, bake their own bread, or even manufacture their own electricity.

You don't need to buy things because they are "Green." There is green to be made off of being green. Hemp baby outfits with Earth-friendly slogans, hemp shoes, reusable shopping bags that boast greenness, hybrid vehicles, and solar gadgets target Earth-conscious folk, but if you don't need something, squeezing a purpose behind a purchase will turn your purchase into an eventual trash pick-up item. You don't need to buy special green bags to go grocery shopping. Why not make your own, or use bags you have already? If buying stuff in that section of the mall that smells of incense and herbs seems awkward to you, perhaps you are more ecologically conservative then the woman wearing her baby in the self-stamped "100% Organic Baby" baby sling. Although, those baby slings work quite well.