Accidentally Green

We hear a lot these days about "going green." It's all over the news and other pop culture outlets; Al Gore has made a second career out of it. They turned off the lights on the Golden Gate Bridge, among other places, in March for an hour, to make a point about environmentalism. Many states are legislating away the ability to purchase incandescent bulbs, in favor of the environmentally healthier compact fluorescent bulbs. Combined with high gas prices eating into their discretionary spending, many people have focused on the environmental benefits to hybrid cars, carpooling and public transportation. It's everywhere.

We are not the greenest family out there. But I'm finding that a lot of the changes we are making in our lives are having unintended (but certainly welcome!) environmentally friendly effects. We drive a hybrid, and we carpool the 3.5 miles to and from work every day, but that's nothing new for us. (We could be even more responsible, and take the train, but we tried that and it was too much of a convenience trade-off. Not because of the walk to and from the station, but because MARTA is not reliable enough for us to be able to predict our schedules sufficiently.)

Because I'm cooking more, I've started buying a lot more organic produce. I guess I really started buying more organic foods for Caetlin's sake (I think I've written about it here somewhere, but I'm too lazy to check right now). But that mindset has really spread, now that I'm cooking for myself, and paying more attention to what both I and Caetlin are eating. I'll be honest and say that the environmental benefits to organic food are a nice side-benefit, and are not my primary purpose in buying organic milk, for example, or hormone free chicken. I'm much more concerned about the high numbers of additives, and the potential effects of those additives on my daughter's developing brain and body. I just feel like our food has gone too far with chemicals and dyes and additives. I'm trying to avoid instilling some of my bad food habits in my daughter, and the best way I know how to do that is to prize natural wholesome food that is as healthy and unrefined as I can make it. And the best way I can do that, is to buy as much organically as I possibly can.

This mindset is extending to my garden, by the way. I am planning to raise my herbs and other produce organically, if I can swing it.

But the real extent of our environmentally friendly lifestyle changes really caught up with me tonight. I have mentioned this before, but I thought I would illustrate it with a couple of pictures.
Tonight we went for a walk with Caetlin after we got home from work. I drove the giant stroller (unlike a giant car, it has no higher emissions than my light, but less cargo-friendly, small stroller) down to CVS first, so Bruce could pick up a prescription. We went the long way, so it was about a 30 minute walk. Then we went across the street to the Publix, where I needed to complete our grocery shopping for the week. Caetlin wanted the ginormous cart that has the race car attached, so Bruce drove her in that while I shopped. Then at the checkout, we whipped out our reusable Publix shopping bags and loaded the stroller down with groceries and Caetlin.

The end result looked like this:


Here's the view from the back:



And another one, just because she's adorable:



We didn't mean to be so green. We just wanted some exercise, and the reusable bags fit into the stroller basket better than the plastic ones. They are also sturdier, and we were collecting way too many plastic bags. But we've ended up being about as environmentally friendly as possible. We walked instead of taking one, even possibly two, car trips. We cut down on plastic bags. We bought organic recycled paper towels, for heaven's sake!

I'm not tooting my horn here, except to say, yay me for exercising! And that stroller is heavy! Especially when loaded down with 28 pound toddler and probably 15 pounds of groceries (there was a 12 pack of diet soda under there too)! Almost all of what we do that is environmentally friendly is motivated by selfish reasons, and frankly, if I thought it were not worth the effort, I probably wouldn't do it. Unlike my friend from Charlotte, whom I admire but probably could not emulate, I don't really go out of my way to live green. But it turns out that a little planning and an attempt at being healthier in general has turned us into budding environmentalists.

Now, if I could just get the city of Atlanta to leave the recycling bin they've been promising.