I'm passionate about the environment. Ok, I'm obsessed. Just ask my family and friends. (Those few who are left since my passion began about 5 years ago...)
In 2002, I read "One makes a difference" by Julia Butterfly. She's the woman who sat in a giant redwood, 180 feet above the ground, for over 2 years. I feel like one book made a difference. After reading her book, I changed my ways. I stopped using shopping bags (as much as possible), started washing my aluminum foil, reused baggies, installed a low-flow shower head, built a compost bin and got rid of my gas guzzling van.
In January 2004, I started writing my first non-software related tip book. I hope to finish the "Just the tips, man for the Environment" ebook by the beginning of 2005. The ebook will be full of things you can do to reduce your impact on the environment. There are almost 300 million people living in the United States (over 6 billion in the world) and if each person did his share, we'd save millions of trees, have cleaner water, reduce pollution and so on. I've talked to plenty of people who want to do something but are not sure what they can do that will actually make a difference. That's the reason for this blog and for the ebook.
3 Comments:
Glad to see your new project. I´ll miss Wendy for a while as my favorite "computer mentor", but I´ll be following and interacting with the "environmental mentor" (the Environ-mentor?) The power of one person is not only what we can do, but also what we can teach by being a mentor to others. I hope this blog will help us become not only better environmentalists, but also environ-mentors. Am posting anonymously at the moment, but am signed up as "environmentor".
By Anonymous, at 1:53 PM
I'm still coming along, trying to treat the environment better. Basically I want to keep seeing the environment as not separate from myself. The illusion of separation from some part of the universe is a major way of avoiding responsibility for the results of my actions. It's all connected, we're all connected, and we all are involved to some degree in what happens to everything. This is such a basic idea, but I often forget it. My efforts to act responsibly are uneven, sometimes contradictory. One day recently I drove maybe 25 miles round trip just to place items at the recycle center. I was fed up with storing the recycle items any longer. I met my need to clean house, I didn't meet my need to clean the planet. Maybe that trip was worth it, because it made me think later. I was impatient to get the job done. The shortage of time was a factor in poor planning. In a very direct way, my personal state of mind had a direct result on the environment. It wasn't too bad, but coulda been better.......... and doing better is what I'm aiming for. Can you relate?
By environmentor, at 6:31 PM
Great idea, Wendy! I'll be watching for the ebook.
By Anonymous, at 11:21 PM
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