“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” —Edmund Burke

OK, I’m Green, But…

Posted: May 18th, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Almost Green, Habits, Shopping | Tags: | 1 Comment »

…I sometimes shop at Big Box stores. I buy organic berries but I slather them in Cool Whip. The truth is, we don’t just commit to improving our lives and then wake up the next morning as post-reinvention transformed beings. There are a trillion half-steps between, endless lingering loose threads of our former selves. As I say in the book:

We live in a tortured age—rife with elaborate guilt trips, look-the-other-way hypocrisy, newfangled codes of ecological conduct, and everyday paradoxes.

That’s me above with my new mattress from IKEA. No, it wasn’t hand-made with recycled cotton at a North Vancouver fabric-arts co-op, it was stitched in Mexico. But at least it’s made of natural latex foam, not nasty polyurethene! So what I want to know is, what are your green true confessions? Do you eat local, but now and then stop at the Drive-Thru window for a biggie-size fries? Go ahead, don’t be shy, we’re all friends here. Hang out your almost-green laundry in the comments field below.

One Comment on “OK, I’m Green, But…”

  1. 1 Chris Corrigan said at 5:30 pm on June 1st, 2008:

    I eat local…everywhere I travel.

    In other words, my commitment to buying foods that are shipped minimal distances pales against a carbon footprint impact that looks like a scene from Godzilla vs. Bambi.

    Anyway…I had some nice local buffalo burgers here in Kingston today. Tomorrow I’ll get some local veggies in Toronto, and then next week it will be fresh fish in Campbell River and locally raised beef in Cochrane, Alberta.

    ZoomGulp. That’s the name of my new movement.

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