Brian and I live forty minutes from the closest town. The closest town has 8,000 people in it and one and half grocery stores. There are parks, gardens and one main road of cars. I hear people talk about the worlds energy crisis and our disappearing natural resources. Gas prices are $4.20. Buzz words like "whole foods" and "organic" have been trendy for years. The worlds climate change has created enough of a stir that second graders know the words "Global Warming" and magazines display pictures of that cuddly Polar Bear and his melting habitat almost every month.
Back in the day I wasn't sure where to start or how to help. I thought about throwing rocks at Walmart, I wrote an email to President Bednar (then the president of BYUI) about better recycling on campus, and I would pick up trash on the road when I found it (LA kind of cured me of that one. . . not fun to pick up urine soaked McDonald's bags). I've realized that even the most "green" of people and organizations can't avoid damaging the planet and using up valuable natural resources. It always makes me laugh when people pull up to the entrance station in their mile-long motor-home that eats more gas than a semi, and ask in an angry voice why they are drilling on the BLM land outside of Canyonlands.
BUT, despite the negative undertones of my post, I like trying to be "Eco-friendly." Bry and I have planted a garden and used composted cow-manure for fertilizer. We plug our shower water and scoop it out into five-gallon buckets to water. Last week during the monsoon, We ran around in the pouring rain scooping water from the gutter and filling up 40 gallons worth of buckets. The plants we harvest will hopefully cut down on our trips to the grocery store and reduce our food and gas bill. NPS has recycle bins next to our house so tossing that tuna can after lunch is a no-brainer. And since we live one minute from work, the bike commute is no problem (our one-time bike to town was a bit of a disaster). Although I've left my rock-throwing-angsty emailing days behind me, there's nothing like living in the middle of nowhere to leave me feeling oh-so-eco.
3 comments:
It's just a fact that we use resources to live. But it's not like the "virus" style of consuming that us humans have been accused of in so much media where we ruin life just to live. Living on this Earth is a mere transfer of nutrients from one place to another. i.e. from dirt, to plants, to our stomach's and back to the dirt again.
The ideal process is how to run the "circle of life" the most efficiently without a waste.
As far as the ignorant motor home driver, he's an example of a virus.
p.s. Water harvesting is cool! There is a community here in AZ that built the roofs on their houses to collect rain water for their gardens. I was glad to hear you guys are already trying it out.
I never realized how much we waste until I moved to France. They are ten times greener than we are. I learned in France to turn off lights, recycle, turn the water off in the shower while I lather up, bring my own grocery sacks, etc. I like living green, or at least more green than my former self. Thanks for the new ideas.
I just got back from Utah and the lack of recycling (at least where we were visiting) drove me nuts!
Good ideas for watering your garden!
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