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Sustain a sustainble life
August 4, 2008

What does it mean to live a sustainable life?

Arduous clearly stole my would-be-brilliant thoughts last week. Fortunately I tucked away the rest of my random opinions that could only be surfaced and comprehended by a jetlagged mind at 3am. So here is my spin.

Coming back from our recent trip to China, I was disheartened. It may be hard to tell from my previous entries. But I would be blind if I could not see the consequences of 1.6 billion people trying to live like us. With India thrown in, that is 2.7 billion people potentially increasing their resource consumption by magnitudes. Frankly we don’t have any right or ability to stop them.

There are about 250 million registered cars in the U.S. Imagine 1 billion more cars on the road in the near future.

We consume 28 billion pounds of beef annually in the U.S. Imagine 140 billion more pounds of beef that may be produced in the horrendous factory farms every year.

On and on, you wonder why I was disturbed. I asked myself at 3am one jetlagged morning: “honestly do you really think it matters whether you bring your own bags to the stores?” I could not produce a satisfying answer.

Then a couple of days later, Crunchy Chicken asked an interesting question – would you behave differently if energy and water were free in terms of financial and environmental cost? Most people mentioned that they’d probably keep their houses a little warmer in the winter and a little cooler in the summer.

Then it clicked for me. Even if energy and water were free and even if all 2.7 billion people were striving to emulate our lifestyle, it would not change most of the things I do now.

I’d still enthusiastically go to farmers’ market every week, I’d still want to bike everywhere I can, I’d still plant our backyard edible garden with care, I’d still look forward to our neighborhood Happy Hour™ because I do all these things out of joy not obligation.

I’d still use green cleaning products, buy organic produce and meats, eat less junk food, apply non-petroleum based lotions, because I do all these things out of health concern not obligation.

I’d still recycle and compost, I’d still bring my own bags and cups to the stores, I’d still use homemade napkins, I’d still not buy crap from Target, I’d still repair our household tools and gadgets as much as possible, because I do all these things out of habit not obligation.

Sure I could use a longer shower or turn up the heat a couple of degrees in the winter. But these are hardly sacrifices.

I can’t seem to cut traveling out of my life, though I try to do it with as little impact as possible, I let my children get plastic (gasp!) lego pieces, mostly from second hand, I enjoy occasional restaurant outing, and we patronize the ones that use local and organic ingredients.

This is how I plan to sustain a sustainable life - living it with joy and leaving room for eco-sins now and then.

Thank goodness I am just into stock car racing, bi-annual home remodeling, or weekly shopping. Otherwise I might have to suffer some serious sacrificing for the common good.

CindyW at Organicpicks

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