Attitude and helping the environment...

My friend shared this article on Facebook, and I thought it was pretty nicely done.  I would encourage you to go and read it because it shows how we are doing silly things to make ourselves think that we are actually helping people and/or the planet.  In the article, numbers three through six are the ones that really pertain to the environment.

What I wanted to do here is address the idea of attitude because I think that this will be the catalyst that will cause positive change.  In particular, I think we should get the idea that we can "be green" without significantly changing anything that we do out of our heads.  Here are some examples.

• Driving a fuel-efficient car but still driving a lot still is a strain on resources.  Walking, biking, and using public transportation while having a fuel-efficient family car that is used only rarely would help.
• Recycling a lot of stuff still uses a lot of resources and energy.  While recycling is better than throwing things away, we should also focus on bringing less into our home that needs to be thrown away or recycled.
• Buying a reusable shopping bag and then not using it or throwing it away before it is completely worn may actually use more resources and energy than using disposable bags.  However, if we each have a few reusable bags that we use regularly and mend when needed, this would certainly be great.
• Having efficient heating in homes is great, but if we continue to build bigger homes, it perhaps doesn't actually save any energy, especially if you consider the energy needed for the resources needed to build the house and then furnish it.  If we improved efficiency while decreasing our house sizes, that would help!
• Biofuels help us not to use gas in cars.  However, they cause us to use farmland for fuel instead of food.  Additionally, chemicals used in farming are often derived from oil!  Instead, we should spend time developing a good energy source and/or use our cars less.

Additionally, monetary savings should not be the only motivation for changing out behavior.  We should hopefully feel driven by our ethics and values.

All in all, as I've said before, I think we all need to seriously consider what we are doing and figure out what effect we are actually having when we do what we do.  With this, we will hopefully be humbled and motivated to change our attitude.  When this happens, we will then have an attitude that will make us ready to accomplish good things.