Hi, great project! I love all these one-year conciousness-raising project.
I know, however, many people who, like me, have never owned a car, a TV, been vegetarian for decades, produce pretty nearly Zero Waste, bicycle or walk, garden to grow food.
Maybe not all these things all together, although in my case, they are done together.
Comment: Facebook, Twitter, blog, aren’t these things dependent on electronics, which are hardly non-impactful (see book ‘STUFF’ by a West Coast guy, from the ’90s, chapter on manufacturing of computers) and waste-free. As I am in touch with you this very minute, I am aware of this contradiction. Computers do have an impact, and a big one, on the Earth.
Marie
This post was submitted by Marie Roulleau.
Congrats.
Yes we read Your Money Or Your Life and Voluntary Simplicity Books.
As we homeschool, and we’re both university educated (BSc, PHD) we, oddly? enough, don’t see a point in electronic toys. I would rather that my kids learn by doing - playing, climbing, experimenting - not sitting staring at a boob-tube that will convert them into overweight, sick, earth destroying “consumers”. The TV is buried in the basement and now and then we watch a movie with the kids. Mostly we read books. Soon enough they’ll hopefully become passable musicians - hopefully?!
Neighbours are car free with two kids - but it’s a more local lifestyle. We have a car, but use it minimally - primarily to visit family and get to homeschooling classes and events. We thought about going car free; but there is a certain insanity factor that would kick in by not being able to get the kids out to homeschooling events with other families! We wanted a local electric car - but they’re too expensive to build if you don’t drive much.
Yes we put out a bag of garbage and a recycling box about every 4 to 6 weeks - unless we recycle something from a neighbour. I don’t know how some people can put out 3 to 5 bags PER WEEK! We just got a wonderful, old, teak sofa - but had to strip all fabric as we couldn’t tolerate the [smoke, perfume] smell. Unfortunately that made more garbage than about 3 months of our normal living.
Oddly enough I now see many people who don’t have a TV - but they use their computer or laptop to watch movies. I kind of cringe because computers use way more electricity than a TV. It’s kind of like using an 18-wheeler truck to haul a few bags of groceries.
As we tend to mine the garbage (the night before garbage pick we call The Sunday Night Store) we often provide our neighbours with an endless supply of kids bicycles and kids toys and even dressers. Give this stuff a second life thru Freecycle or Kijiji. My kids get their allowance by picking up recyclables, garbage and finding beer/wine bottles for 10c to 20c each.
The only way a cell phone gets into our home is if someone else brings one.
Maybe we’ll use one in a decade or so when our kids are old enough to decide if they want to waste $1k/yr on one of those radiation devices.
Voluntary Simplicity / Intentional Living / Intentional Purchasing
Toys don’t make us happy.
Comment by Eric — January 26, 2010 @ 1:04 pm