Feb 07 2010
Are You An “Eco” Hypocrite?
I was watching something last night on TV about protestors at a power station and it got me thinking. Are we all just “eco hypocrites”.
To be honest I am less interested in environmental issues than some of you may think. I am still dubious about Global warming and I know many of you will be sighing in sympathy for my stupidity. Well, that is as may be. The truth is I am more in to being self sufficient than anything else.
For me this means:
- No bills
- No mortgage
- Growing veggies
- Keeping chickens
- Working for myself
- Not spending to keep up with the Jones’s
etc, etc.
All of that we have achieved. But I wonder about the whole “eco” thing. What does being more “eco friendly” mean. Buying organic, by driving your car to the supermarket?
Using energy efficient lightbulbs yet still using electricity produced by Nuclear which you absolutely DO NOT AGREE WITH?
What is with the whole Eco thing?
I don’t even know what it means any more.
Is it having a box of seasonal veg delivered to your door even though you could grow it yourself. But oh, you don’t have time because you go to work to pay the bills, to buy the veg, to feed the family, to clothe the family, who you never see because you go to work to………
I am not saying I am any better. I want to be self sufficient but we drive a 4X4, live somewhere so it is a 2 hour drive to the supermarket, which is about as environmentally friendly as our Car in the first place.
We have 3 Dogs which means expense and lots of methane ( an awful lot). We say we want to look after the environment but we still buy clothes that travel around the world and are full of synthetic crap, who knows what is on the little vegetable plugs that we buy, even though we then use no chemicals on them.
I just wonder what it all means at times.
Is it enough to do our own little bit? It all helps right?
Is it fair that I use a blog to make money now and then by selling solar panels and compost tumblers to people. Is that an un “eco” thing to do? Should I only write about how to be more self reliant and how to only get things for free? This is a self sufficient blog after all.
But this is not the way of the world is it?
If I went out to work working in a factory making items full of pollutants and left others to make money from selling solar panels and composters, and only wrote about how to spend less and grow veggies, would that make me a better and less un Eco person?
I don’t know.
I do know that I, well, both of us, have found a middle ground. We do our bit, but is it for the greater good?
Hmm. How many peoples actions are. I can sit at home, get up when I want, and make my living from the Internet. Yes my laptop is run by solar. But the Sun does not always shine and the generator that give us backup power is run by 95 unleaded which is not giving us and brownie points.
What a hypocrite.
It’s odd, I wonder what being eco really means.
Personally I think it is about minimizing the waste, not using pollutants if you don’t really have to, growing your own, making compost, and for me it is about getting out of the rat race.
For others it is something totally different.
Others will say it is about being a vegetarian and not wasting good crop growing land. It is about being organic and riding a bike and selling the Car.
What are your thoughts?
What does being “Eco” Friendly actually mean?
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