As noted before, I recently merged households with Dave, my boyfriend and his daughters, which is nice, but they’re not quite as green as my son Cedar and me. Not that Cedar and me are perfect – just wait because I’ll post about our downfalls soon. Still all of this has made me start thinking about the why aspect of going green. For example is it really fair that I want everyone in the house to try and live green? It’s not just Cedar and me now, so I do have to consider other people. However, I do still want a green home, even if it’s more of a challenge now, because there are plenty of good reasons to try to live greener.
The BIGGIE reason
For the kids: The number one reason I’ve been trying to live greener all these years is for my son. I’d say that I started greening my life in bigger ways about 8 years ago, and while there have been a lot of positives, it’s also been very challenging. Giving up some stuff was hard as was learning to live in different ways. I don’t want my son to have such a hard time. I want green living to be something he naturally considers vs. having to try at it. So far this aspect of me living green has paid off. Cedar is already pretty green; in fact he’s much greener and more knowledgeable about eco-issues than I ever was as a kid. Now that my boyfriend Dave is living here and he has two kids it’d be nice if they also had an easier time with living green.
The other reasons
Health: Toxins, chemicals, and pesticides in cleaning products, food, body care items and mattresses are not things I’m on board with. I certainly don’t want Cedar or Dave’s kids (or us for that matter) exposed to all this junk. You can’t live in a bubble, but I can control the toxins in my own home to a point. There’s also a major nature component I believe should be looked at in green living. A family who does enjoy nature and gets out there is healthier than a family who is always centered around a television or other indoor activities.
Money: It’s cheaper to live green. This is actually a debatable point with many, but in my opinion (and experience) it is less expensive to live green.
Work: I’m a full-time freelance writer and community manager, and although I do write and manage communities for other topics, I’d guess that about 80% of my income comes from writing about green issues. It’d be pretty damn lame if I spent all this time handing out tips and offering advice if I wasn’t walking the talk.
Conservation: Some resources we have won’t be around forever. They will run out. If everyone did there part with conserving, we wouldn’t be running out as fast. Everyone doesn’t do their part, but in my house we can make the choice to do ours.
Global warming: I think it goes without saying that major warming, floods, and other global warming aspects sounds pretty terrible and I do believe in global warming. There are plenty of other reasons to live green that make more sense in an immediate way for families, although I do think global warming is one consideration.
Water: Water is getting scarce. Don’t let those big oceans fool you. We don’t have enough water to go around, and if we run out we’re all screwed.
Landfills: In spite of people thinking we have never ending space in our landfills, we don’t. If we had plenty of space why would the U.S. do things like send our trash elsewhere? We don’t have unlimited space. The world is not getting any bigger and it’s up to us to conserve the land we have.
Consumerism: Even before I went green I had major issues with beating the neighbors, Black Friday, McMansions, commercial holiday nonsense, and other non-essentials that people buy up in masses. Mass consumerism teaches our kids horrible lessons on how to live. All this time wasted on earning money for junk just to impress others or because we’ve been programmed to think we need it makes me crazy, and green living directly contradicts this mindset. Green living, in most instances is a lot about living with less and living with family not things as a priority which I like.
Why not?: If there’s a way to go reusable that’s just as easy as non-reusable; if there’s a way to save energy vs. not; if there’s a way to keep toxins out… why wouldn’t you try to incorporate these tasks into your world? There are some harder aspects of going green for sure, but for years I’ve managed, and others have managed, to find ways to do it that are not that hard and even less stressful in many cases. When you think about it, living green is just a mindset – it’s about making choices that are healthier for people and the planet. IF you can find a way to do it that doesn’t take up more time or money or sacrifice your lifestyle in an extreme way, why not do it?
Of course, this is by no means a complete list. There are hundreds of great reasons to live green. What are some of yours?
