Share member Amy Stross contributed this article for the newsletter. If you would like to contribute, email me at eandriacco@gmail.com. You can post the text in the body of the email or share from google documents!
Oil Spill Confessions
A Tale of My Owning Up
by Amy Stross
“It was only a matter of time before those evil people committed a really heinous act on our sacred Earth,” I told myself about those executives at BP, while feeling powerless to do anything about the oil spill tragedy. The thought of an ecosystem lost - made up of billions of innocent marine and aviary lives of which we had come to take for granted, and whose impacts on planetary homeostasis we haven’t yet fathomed - was unconscionable.
I felt a heavy sadness that alternated with anger as I searched for someone to blame. How could this be? I wondered. After a long few weeks of depression oscillating with anger, I came to an ironic realization: I was the culprit; I had finally gotten caught red-handed. Eventually, an addict must admit she has a problem: “My name is Amy, and I’m an oil-aholic.” I try to live intentionally - working from home, combining car trips, growing a lot of my food, cooking much of my food from scratch, and heck, getting fresh veggies from the CSA that were produced less than 4 miles from my house, among other things - what more could I possibly do to reduce my oil reliance and consumption that would fit into my budget and time constraints?
I realized the only way I was going to get myself out of this funk of self-blame and despair was to do something. One Saturday morning, as I was picking up my share at the greenhouse, it hit me: Look at all these petroleum-guilty plastic bags I’m scooping up this produce in, as if they’re the only option to keep my veggies moist and my cute canvas bags dry!
A few years ago I had heard of cloth bags for produce and began using them. I found small cloth bags around the house that I had collected from various things - a bed sheet set came in one, shoes came in a few others, etc. They’re pretty easy to use - moisten the bags with water, fill with produce, and place in the refrigerator crisper drawer. Every 3 days or so re-moisten the bags. Somewhere along the line I had gotten lazy and had gone back to plastic bags. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a few plastic bags in the rotation, and I’ll continue using them until they wear out, but I’m back on track with cloth bags. If you’re interested in purchasing these types of bags, be sure to find ones with sustainably-produced cloth such as hemp or linen, or organic cotton, since conventional cotton farming is notorious for its pesticide and water consumption, and you’ll need the extra large variety to fit in all of the CSA goodies. If you’re crafty, try making some of your own out of old rags or clothes. They’ll get dirty and it will seem odd at first. They may even develop some tomato battle-wound stains, but guess what? They wash and reuse just the same.
So by now you might be saying ‘so your answer to the oil spill is to use cute little cloth produce bags instead of plastic?’ How simplistic and naive! And yet, every action, every decision has the power to set a whole bunch of things in motion that we might not have anticipated. Just look at the thousands of actions and decisions that led us to being an oil-dependent nation, to unsafe offshore drilling practices, and finally, to that fateful day of the spill.
Recently, my husband, Vince, and I splurged and bought ourselves bike helmets and took an inaugural road-ride over to the greenhouse for a share pick-up. It was pretty exhausting on my rusty old rickety bike, but I felt quite empowered, and quite motivated to learn how to give it a tune-up. And much to my surprise, I felt safe and that the drivers gave me adequate space.
I’d like my everyday decisions to reflect my values, and I’m noticing more and more small ways I can work toward my own oil independence. Even if the oil spill has been stopped, it won’t be the last of unnecessary acts of violence and it seems like we’re only buying time until this finite resource runs out anyway.
Have you experienced feelings of despair regarding the oil spill? If so, have you found ways to cope or reduce your dependence? Please write me at amy [at] strosspub [dot] com with your thoughts and ideas.
A Tale of My Owning Up
by Amy Stross
“It was only a matter of time before those evil people committed a really heinous act on our sacred Earth,” I told myself about those executives at BP, while feeling powerless to do anything about the oil spill tragedy. The thought of an ecosystem lost - made up of billions of innocent marine and aviary lives of which we had come to take for granted, and whose impacts on planetary homeostasis we haven’t yet fathomed - was unconscionable.
I felt a heavy sadness that alternated with anger as I searched for someone to blame. How could this be? I wondered. After a long few weeks of depression oscillating with anger, I came to an ironic realization: I was the culprit; I had finally gotten caught red-handed. Eventually, an addict must admit she has a problem: “My name is Amy, and I’m an oil-aholic.” I try to live intentionally - working from home, combining car trips, growing a lot of my food, cooking much of my food from scratch, and heck, getting fresh veggies from the CSA that were produced less than 4 miles from my house, among other things - what more could I possibly do to reduce my oil reliance and consumption that would fit into my budget and time constraints?
I realized the only way I was going to get myself out of this funk of self-blame and despair was to do something. One Saturday morning, as I was picking up my share at the greenhouse, it hit me: Look at all these petroleum-guilty plastic bags I’m scooping up this produce in, as if they’re the only option to keep my veggies moist and my cute canvas bags dry!
A few years ago I had heard of cloth bags for produce and began using them. I found small cloth bags around the house that I had collected from various things - a bed sheet set came in one, shoes came in a few others, etc. They’re pretty easy to use - moisten the bags with water, fill with produce, and place in the refrigerator crisper drawer. Every 3 days or so re-moisten the bags. Somewhere along the line I had gotten lazy and had gone back to plastic bags. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a few plastic bags in the rotation, and I’ll continue using them until they wear out, but I’m back on track with cloth bags. If you’re interested in purchasing these types of bags, be sure to find ones with sustainably-produced cloth such as hemp or linen, or organic cotton, since conventional cotton farming is notorious for its pesticide and water consumption, and you’ll need the extra large variety to fit in all of the CSA goodies. If you’re crafty, try making some of your own out of old rags or clothes. They’ll get dirty and it will seem odd at first. They may even develop some tomato battle-wound stains, but guess what? They wash and reuse just the same.
So by now you might be saying ‘so your answer to the oil spill is to use cute little cloth produce bags instead of plastic?’ How simplistic and naive! And yet, every action, every decision has the power to set a whole bunch of things in motion that we might not have anticipated. Just look at the thousands of actions and decisions that led us to being an oil-dependent nation, to unsafe offshore drilling practices, and finally, to that fateful day of the spill.
Recently, my husband, Vince, and I splurged and bought ourselves bike helmets and took an inaugural road-ride over to the greenhouse for a share pick-up. It was pretty exhausting on my rusty old rickety bike, but I felt quite empowered, and quite motivated to learn how to give it a tune-up. And much to my surprise, I felt safe and that the drivers gave me adequate space.
I’d like my everyday decisions to reflect my values, and I’m noticing more and more small ways I can work toward my own oil independence. Even if the oil spill has been stopped, it won’t be the last of unnecessary acts of violence and it seems like we’re only buying time until this finite resource runs out anyway.
Have you experienced feelings of despair regarding the oil spill? If so, have you found ways to cope or reduce your dependence? Please write me at amy [at] strosspub [dot] com with your thoughts and ideas.
I agree, Amy, we need to take those little steps. Just doing the CSA and knowing that my food is just about as local as it possibly could be (about 3 blocks away) makes me feel a whole lot better about my carbon footprint. There are a lot of other little things we can do, too. We can unplug our appliances, computers, and phone chargers when not in use. We can make sure that our fridges and freezers stay full (they use less energy that way). Of coarse, having all these yummy veggies really helps in that area!
ReplyDelete-Beth Andriacco