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Are you an eco mom?
Filed under: Just For Moms, Activities: Babies, Health & Safety: Babies, Development/Milestones: Babies, In The News, Going Green, Decor, Sex
Green living starts at home. At least it does for a growing number of women who are considered "green moms" or "EcoMoms." These women are taking the future of the planet--the one their children shall inherit--personally. And, frankly, from the looks of it they might just get something done. For once.
Did you see that Al Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth? I knew much of what Al had to tell me--to tell all of us, especially Americans--before I sat down to watch. It still scared me more than any horror movie I've seen in the last ten years. Heck--it IS a horror movie, really more in the reality horror genre. Luckily, the horror can be stopped. The EcoMoms are on that track and they're not backing down--not when their children's future is at stake.
The EcoMoms throw ecoparties where they discuss ways to save energy, lobby for green building codes and how to eat locally grown food to cut down on the gasses emitted my trucks delivering goods from elsewhere. The EcoMoms also have an Alliance with over 9000 members. Having that many people on the same team combats burn out, which many people suffer when they face the challenge of saving the planet alone. According to one member, Kathy Miller, what once was eco-anxiety is now activism.
I think many people, parents especially, try to do their part. I use less water for showers, only use cold water to wash my full loads of laundry and walk everywhere I can. I also share some eco anxiety--I still haven't tried the G diapers, which are better for the environment than my Seventh Generation. I do use my car when the weather is bad--which, in New York in winter, is very often.
Still, we make a lot of our own baby food, take our lunches to work and are part of a real food coop. We recycle everything possible and try to use less paper, less electricity, fewer resources, when we can. It was much easier, in some ways, before we had a baby. Now in others way it is easier. I look at my son and think I don't want to make his life harder later because of mistakes I could've easily avoided making in the present.
I guess that makes me an EcoMom in training. I'm not a member of the Alliance or anything, but at least I'm on the right track. What about you--what kinds of eco-conscious things do you do as a parent that help protect the environment?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-16-2008 @ 7:44PM
Mel said..."The EcoMoms throw ecoparties where they discuss ways to save energy, lobby for green building codes and how to eat locally grown food to cut down on the gasses emitted my trucks delivering goods from elsewhere."
See, it was all good til it got to the part about lobbying. I'm confused: isn't the liberal movement all about live-n-let-live? So leave me and my buildings alone! Many people have no interest in so-called green living, and it's and its presumptuous when these sanctimonious treehuggers assume otherwise.
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2-17-2008 @ 5:09AM
Uly said...Why do you assume that every "ecomom" is, by definition, liberal? Do you really think that all conservatives ever really want to destroy the earth so that nobody can live here? I mean, is that the bumper sticker you want to put on your SUV?
2-16-2008 @ 11:17PM
Anna Hackman said...Jennifer, I think you are doing great. I think being conscious of your choices is the first step. I don't believe in "it is all or nothing." Some people take baby steps while others run ahead.
In my case, I built a couple of years ago using a alot of green materials for my children. My focus was nontoxic since I feel that the chemicals in building products, furniture, and other personal decor can impact our children's immune systems more than we think. We spend most of our time indoors.
So, when we built everything form the adhesives, paints, grout, etc all had to be low or nontoxic. Trying doing this a couple of years ago before green was hot!
Over the years, I expanded into organic gardening, recycling fundrasiers for my children's school, and expanded my knowledge of what it is like to live healthy and sustainable. I am constantly learning.
I understand Mel's comment. I author a blog called Green Talk and try and educate people about living green. I try and make it easy but I know that many of my suggestions will fall on deaf ears. My hope is that my readers will take some of the suggestions that feel comfortable to them and run with them. Perhaps, they may come back for more. I feel that if everyone did a little bit more for the environment, the world would be alot better off. Anna www.green-talk.com
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2-17-2008 @ 9:15AM
Justine Lemmon said...Sounds like a cult to me. Why don't you just set the example for your children? Why make it into a religion of sorts?
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2-17-2008 @ 10:34AM
Mel said...Uly. No, I don't think that *anyone* "wants to destroy the earth so that nobody can live here." That is the essence of the difference between the liberal and the conservative environmental perspective: libs think that if you don't live green, then you are destroying the earth so nobody can live here; conservatives don't necessarily see the connection between "green" living and continued life on earth.
It is not pro-earth-destuction vs. anti-earth-destruction. Everyone's in the latter category. It's that some people don't believe that an un-green lifestyle is environmentally unsound.
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2-17-2008 @ 10:39AM
Mel said...I should note that many people - at all parts of the political spectrum - do see the connection between green-living and conservatorship. However, the liberals politicize it when they force everyone to live green. They attempt to accomplish this via legislation - just like the women in the article who "lobby for green building codes."
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2-18-2008 @ 12:28AM
Uly said...But Mel, again, you're *assuming* these people identify as liberal. Sheesh.
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2-18-2008 @ 1:02AM
Mel said...No Uly, I'm not assuming *they* identify as liberal. *I* am identifying them as liberal. I draw the distinction, as I stated, by looking to see if the person tries to make *me* live a green life. If so, they get a liberal label.
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