Are Environmentally Responsible Choices Getting Harder to Make?
By Guest Blogger Mary from Simply Forties
I am honored to have been asked by Beth to be her second guest poster. She gave me carte blanche as to subject and length of post. What power! It’s been a pleasure.
I was watching Bill Nye’s program, Stuff Happens, on Planet Green the other day. He did a segment on cashmere. Cashmere, as I’m sure you know, is a completely natural fiber obtained from the Cashmere goat. Cashmere goats are not sheared like a sheep, they molt or shed their winter coats in the Spring and the fibers are collected or, in some cases, combed out. What could be more natural, more green, more eco-friendly than that?
If you’ve ever had a cashmere sweater or scarf or robe, you know why everyone loves cashmere. Therein lies the rub. Everyone loves cashmere! As a result of the popularity of cashmere, the Cashmere goat raisers, who run their charges on the outskirts of the Gobi, are expanding their flocks at a rapid rate. Goats are voracious eaters and efficient brush clearers. Since goats like to eat from the top down, areas where goats forage will have a “browse line” below which virtually everything is cleared off. The grasslands that border the Gobi are being stripped away, allowing the desert to expand by leaps and bounds. Maybe cashmere is not so green after all.
So let’s see. Cotton, a renewable natural fiber, is grown on plants that are sprayed with pesticides. They grow a lot of cotton around here, in this desert, and I can tell you that the fields are heavily irrigated and, after the harvest, stripped and left bare for the soil to blow away during the windy season. That doesn’t seem so green either. Wool comes from sheep, which means it is also a renewable fiber. Sheep, like cows, emit an appreciable amount of methane gas every day. Methane is a particularly worrisome greenhouse gas. Producing wool also requires a vast amount of water—not only to raise and care for the sheep, but also to rid the raw wool of numerous impurities. It takes approximately 500,000 liters of water to manufacture a metric ton of wool; this figure is even higher when the sheep in question are fed in confined quarters, where extra water is required to manage the manure.
I remember a few years ago when it seemed like every other news report was of yet another food that was going to give us cancer. When it was just a few, we were able to make good choices and avoid the ones that were reported to be cancer-causing. Then it began to seem as though all foods were problematic; the water we drank was dangerous; even the air we breathed. The result? I know I threw up my hands and said there were no good choices. I gave up and ate what I wanted. I’m sure I was not alone in feeling helpless about what to do.
While we all want to make informed, environmentally friendly choices, I’m afraid this “under the microscope” look at all aspects of the production of the products we use every day is going to lead us to decide that we can make no completely responsible choices. We may stop trying. I don’t know what the answer is in this world of information overload. In fact I like having a lot of information at my fingertips. I’m just not so sure this is going in the right direction. As we become more and more concerned about the environmental impact of everything we do, which is a good thing, I’m afraid we may become overwhelmed and give up.
What about you? Are you starting to feel a bit overwhelmed and unsure about your choices? I know I am.
Hi! I’m Mary from Simply Forties, a 47-year old single mother of a college-aged son. I write about the topics that interest me most as I make my way through my forties – finances, the environment, social responsibility and, sometimes, relationships and dealing with grown children. I hope you’ll stop by my blog and look around. You can also find me every other Thursday over at 5 Minutes for Going Green.
Global Patriot on 15 Jan 2009 at 7:15 am #
When involved with business strategy consulting for companies I always tell them to ask one key question about all their processes, “Does it scale?”
Said another way, “Can you continue to grow using your current methods, or does your process fall apart in some fashion as the volume increases?”
With the environment, the question might be worded as, “Is is sustainable?”
As the world’s population continues to expand we will see ever more examples of systems, processes and products that have sustainability challenges, which means that we will become even more overwhelmed with tough choices – but they are choices that will determine the fate of the planet.
Fabulously Broke on 15 Jan 2009 at 8:05 am #
I think we can make smart choices that work for us, and our families, that will help the environment rather than hinder it.
To your cashmere+cotton example, the simple solution is just to buy less.
We probably each own more than enough in our closets to last us for many years to come. I know I do.
I just don’t buy clothes any more unless I’m on my last piece – like a pair of jeans that I can’t seem to give up yet because I cannot find another pair.
So, my idea of being more eco-friendly is just to buy less to create less waste, stop using chemicals as much as possible (I’ve virtually eliminated all detergents and soap except for in the bathroom, and hygienically too!), and to stop using plastic OR paper. Go reusable.
Done.
Fabulously Broke in the City
“Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.“
Jenny on 15 Jan 2009 at 12:26 pm #
I agree. It is getting harder to make earth friendly decisions. With mega companies buying organic farms and cutting corners wherever they can, with Trader Joes having organic food produced in China (with no third party organic certification), with Monsanto’s assault on farmers and their GMO cross contamination of organic crops, with cage free eggs meaning 15 chickens may have access to a foot of space, with the USDA considering irradiation and sewage as fertilizer as acceptable under their organic stamp, it does get overwhelming. So I just do the best I can. I buy less, buy local, buy organic, recycle and reuse. Did you know there are items coming up to not allow third party certification on organic packages? Sorry state of affairs though I have hope that many of us will continue to use our spending power in the best ways we know how so eventually it’ll shift the greed to the greater good. Thanks for the blog. Had no idea about the cashmere.
Sarah on 16 Jan 2009 at 8:35 am #
Wow – all of that is so overwhelming, I don’t know where to start.
So…I work in an inner city school. I am lucky if they know about recycling, much less shutting windows/doors while the heater is on. This is where I start – instilling the importance of the little things to others.
We are hosting a GreenCity conference for other high schools in the country, so our school is talking about green alternatives a lot, but we are more focused on how the average person (inner city type) can do a few things to lessen their impact on the Earth.