"Good Environmentalism"

It's funny that this is our first blog post, because my friends and I were actually just debating this question - what challenges does environmentalism face today - one our way home from our labor day weekend road trip. (Does it make me not an environmentalist if I drove? What if there were three other people in the car?) I think that the biggest challenge for environmentalism today is the attitude surrounding it. Where I grew up (Pittsburgh, PA), "environmentalist" was a bit of a dirty word. It's a little bit amazing to me to walk down Bethesda Row and see entire stores devoted to "green living," because it's so unlike what I'm used to. Back home, people regard environmentalists as tree-hugging hippies who care more for polar bears than "good American jobs." Though I don't really agree with these types of attitudes, I do understand them, and I think they are the single biggest obstacle the environmental movement is going to have to overcome if we want to make the average American's lifestyle greener. I think to get more people on-board with greener lifestyle initiatives we have to change that attitude about environmentalism. We need to show people that living with a more eco-conscious focus doesn't have to be something only hippies and radicals do. I'm not quite sure how to achieve that shift in perception, but I think it's going to be very important if we want other (more rural) parts of the country to start living greener.

Similarly, I thought Fish's article was quite interesting because I see that same struggle playing out in my house. I tell my parents we should buy recycled toilet paper, and they look at me like I've grown another head. While I was on vacation this summer there wasn't curb-side pickup of recyclables, so my boyfriend and I found a recycling station about 15 minutes away to take all our stuff at the end of the week. It wasn't a big step, but it was one a lot of people in my family wouldn't have taken. Being a "good environmentalist" can be quite difficult, especially given some of the stereotypes surrounding it. While I think it's necessary, it certainly isn't easy, especially if others in your household don't always see the point or think it's worth the effort. Being from the pretty rural suburbs of Pittsburgh, I also understand the difficulty of transportation -  Pittsburgh's public transportation system is pretty terrible, and most of the time it barely reaches into the suburbs. Biking isn't an option because it's too unsafe, and distances are too far to walk, so driving is left as the only option. As I become more aware of environmental arguments that makes me feel guilty (see above about this weekend's road trip), but what's the alternative? I think a lot of people today are struggling to live in an environmentally conscious way but are maybe at a loss as to what they can do. Along those same lines, sometimes struggling to live greener can be quite expensive - for example, my parents have looked into getting one of those backyard windmills for some of our energy needs (we live on top of a hill, so it would work pretty well), but the cost is around $14,000. It's difficult to justify spending that much money while sending two kids to college. Our conversation on the way home from our weekend trip brought up a similar point - is it better to trade in your reasonably well-cared for, not-yet-that-old car which may not have the best gas mileage for a new Prius? Does buying the new, eco-friendly car justify ditching (and probably wasting) those older but still working car materials? After what feels like a lot of rambling, I think I'm left with more questions than answers.