Eco-Concience and Green Choices

Someone once said "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". (or was it a "mime"?) Unfortunately, a mind is also a terrible thing. Once you've read something or seen something or heard something, it's stuck in that mass of grey stuff inside your skull, like it or not. (I read an article 20 years ago on the little girl orphans in China that still makes me cry today)

Take my morning indulgence of coffee, for example. Last week I read that the palm oil production industry is threatening orangutan's habitat. And the main ingredient in the powdered creamer I chuck liberally into the coffee is palm oil! So as of this morning, I'm trying real cream instead of creamer. Which I guess is a good thing, but it's gonna cost me. (On a related note, I also had real butter on my proper bread this morning, as well as apples fresh-picked from a kind neighbour's tree. The most natural breakfast I've ever had!)

And then there's the contraceptive-hurts-environment issue I blogged about in a post some of you dared to read. Thanks to that, I'm off the injection. (Which is a good thing, says my newly-rediscovered womanliness, ie libido - but we won't go there)

Paint? Carpets? Furniture? All that reading has made me look at my surroundings with new eyes, noting the stuff that gives off chemicals 50 years down the line and damages our bodies. No more generic brown-spotty carpets, if I can help it. I'm refinishing my little square of parquet flooring in natural waxes and resins, and going for paint that doesn't give you asthma. I'm on the point of chucking out the lounge suite in favour of a wood and naturally-cushioned version I'm busy designing, and will make.

This weekend I replace the final 8 lightbulbs in my house with energy saving ones. I'm sitting here basically in the dark, using as little power as possible. Lights and gadgets go off and/or are unplugged when not in use. I've been stocking up on my natural fire-lighters for personal use and for sale, and looking at alternative energy sources for the future.

The recycling drive at work has seen me haul 4 CAR-loads of paper to the primary school in the past month. Every ton saves 17 trees... I'm sure I've saved a small grove.

I haven't yet reached the point where I give up deodorant, shampoo and toothpaste. Thankfully, according to my fellow-man.

But more and more I find myself trying to live greener and lighter and more naturally on the earth. All because of this blob of stuff in my head that retains information and won't let me go back to my old ways.