My mom once told me that my dad can handle a lot of economies but that reducing their AC use (in Houston) is not one of them. I like my AC, but I like my soft toilet paper more. And now, I feel guilty for the environmental impact: soft toilet paper is made from standing trees because recycled paper just can't be made soft. And, oh ugh, some of that is coming from old-growth forests here in North America. So Greenpeace has issued a ratings guide, which gives good enough marks to Trader Joe's and Seventh Generation, the only acceptable brands I'd heard of, and horrible marks to my preference.
But then I read here that I shouldn't really worry, that personal consumer choices often have little impact, even if they were to be adopted by the majority. At least I've done the first suggestion, which is vegetarianism. We don't do so well with driving less, though we drive less than we did when the kiddos were sleepless babes. The other experts basically had no suggestions, just saying that perhaps we could try buying more from developing nations (though he was the most skeptical about personal consumer choices) and that taxing pollutants would provide incentive to major corporations.
Maybe we'll continue with trying not to use paper towels or paper napkins, and maybe I can use less toilet paper. And I might try squeezing those recycled brands, just to see. Because, in the end, isn't it better to hug a tree than toilet paper?
Disposable diapers are the real culprit, so go back a stage, use cloth to deal with your discharge and then wash it later, no worse than the old style diaper that we called Terry Towel.
ReplyDeleteThe Japanese have a bowl that can squirt warm water at your delicate parts, then blow warm air...no trees involved at all...but a lot of electricity. Or go organic, use dock leaves or grass to wipe your situpon.