Category: Green

Keep the Change

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Yesterday a young woman knocked on my door and handed me a small box containing a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). She instructed me to immediately replace some other light bulb with this one, and to make sure that, when this bulb burned out in 5 to 7 years, I’d recycle it properly.

Proper recycling of these bulbs (which contain a small amount of mercury) requires me to leave my home and drive my car to an approved dropoff location. Sounds like, in some effort to be green, Peter is being robbed to pay Paul.

For the record, we have many light fixtures in our home that contain CFLs. I’m ready to rip them out of the dining-room light right now, because they take so long to light up that you have to remember to turn on the dining-room light 20 minutes before dinner if you want to be able to see what you’re eating. In the ceiling-mount fixtures, the CFLs last only about two times longer than regular incandescent bulbs–but the cost per bulb is ten times higher. When my incandescent bulbs burn out, they just stop working. When some CFLs burn out, they can “emit smoke and a melting, plastic-like odor.” Yeah, I want that in my house. (Maybe that’s why they recommend on the box that you use this bulb for your porch light!)

Naturally, on the side of the box, there was one of those dubious “green statistics” that follows this pattern:

If every ________ did ____________ just __________ time(s), enough ___________ would be saved to _________________.

Here’s my answer. If every American household received $5 instead of a compact fluorescent light bulb just one time, that money could have been put toward their utility bill. The utility companies are the ones sponsoring this light-bulb giveaway anyhow.

So thanks for the light bulb, but I’d rather have had the $5.

I’m Tired of Keeping My Mouth Shut

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So when I received an email today, sent from a member of the SFO Regional Council, asking me to watch a “compelling” video about the environment by Al Gore, I recycled a few of my blog posts (how “green” of me!), did a little research, and responded. I might have to take some heat for this, but if I’d kept my mouth shut, I couldn’t live with myself (or my family. My kids watch and learn from what my husband and I say and do.)

So here’s my response.

“This video may be “compelling” but Al Gore’s position as an environmental doomsayer is less scientific than theatric. According to this article, which links to this piece from the London Daily Mail, Pope Benedict XVI has repudiated such fearmongering. In fact, the planet Mars, as well as other planets in our solar system, is also experiencing “global warming” at this time. Climate change is real, but it is not entirely under human control. Climate change happens all the time, on every planet.

Al Gore is not the environmental Messiah that he purports to be. And his voting record and position on life issues, once he reached the U.S. Congress, is abysmal.

Have you visited the website and checked out the committee members? They include Sierra Club, which is a pro-choice organization by its own admission.

Saint Francis of Assisi has apparently come to be considered the Patron Saint of Earth Day, ecology, and all things “green.” But the green movement does Francis no justice when insistence is placed on “green for green’s sake.”

The only thing the Francis was interested in for its own sake was God.

Yes, he had a great reverence for Creation–the earth, nature, the sun and moon and all the animals, plants and trees. But his reverence was born from his awe of the power and creativity and genius of God. To Francis, every bit of God’s creation reflected God’s glory–and that is what made creation something to be revered. Francis saw God’s glory, power, creativity and genius in everything and everyone, and strove to act accordingly. Let us remember that while it’s great to reduce waste, recycle or reuse what we have, and try to create less garbage, the reason we do this is to treat God’s creation with care–to be good stewards of what we have been given. It’s not enough to be “green.” We should also be grateful.

We cannot sacrifice Francis’ deep message on the altar of ecology.

Pope Benedict has spoken about who Saint Francis really was. He’s not just that guy in the birdbaths. He’s not some enviro-hippie.

Benedict XVI said he wanted to correct the “abuses” and “betrayals” that distort the true character of Saint Francis. And to recall the false view of Saint Francis, Benedict XVI needed just two words: “environmentalist” and “pacifist.” …The truth of Saint Francis – the pope emphasizes – is his “radical choice of Christ,” the conversion awakened in him by the words of the crucified Jesus: ‘Go, rebuild my house.’

It’s not about peace protests. It’s not about ecology. It’s not about blessing our household pets.

Being Franciscan is about conversion. All the rest is incidental.

In the spiritual travail that the young Francis was living through, he perceived these words of vocation and mission as being in the first place an invitation to carry out completely the conversion that had already begun, making his own the concern and plans of Christ for his Church.

So our priority, as Franciscans, is to ask ourselves how we can better turn ourselves toward God, and serve Him in our daily lives. That’s what conversion is about–turning TOWARD God.”

Wish me luck. I’ve got that Veggie Tales song, “Stand,” running through my head right now.

More Musings on All Things Green

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From Canadian author Sheila Wray Gregoire.

It’s Not Easy Being Green.

A highlight:

Green is now the “in” thing, and the rich are embracing it. But those who are really green aren’t rich. They’re just everyday folks sorting their recyclables, turning their heat down at night to save on energy bills, and camping in the summer rather than flying to Fiji.

Now go on over to her site and leave her a “love note” since she is sure this column will generate hate mail. And while you’re at it, read her other posts as well. Her blog, and her books, make a lot of sense.

Thanks for having the courage to write this column, Sheila!

Earth Day According to One Secular Franciscan

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Saint Francis of Assisi has apparently come to be considered the Patron Saint of Earth Day, ecology, and all things “green.”

But the green movement does Francis no justice when insistence is placed on “green for green’s sake.”

The only thing the Francis was interested in for its own sake was God.

Yes, he had a great reverence for Creation–the earth, nature, the sun and moon and all the animals, plants and trees. But his reverence was born from his awe of the power and creativity and genius of God. To Francis, every bit of God’s creation reflected God’s glory–and that is what made creation something to be revered. Francis saw God’s glory, power, creativity and genius in everything and everyone, and strove to act accordingly.

So when we toss statistics around like these (which I did not make up, but which were sent to me in an email from the National Youth Commission of the Secular Franciscan Order):

One soft drink can recycled by each elementary school student in America would save 24.8 million cans! That would be enough aluminum to create 21 Boeing 737 airplanes!

One out of every 3 pounds of the waste that Americans generate is just for packaging, which each year adds up to 77 million tons–enough to fill the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans 37 times!

If every newspaper reader in the USA recycled just one typical Sunday paper, he or she would help create 212 million pounds of cellulose insulation–enough to insulate 118,767 Habitat for Humanity houses! That’s nearly twice as many houses as all the Habitat homes built in America so far!

let us remember that while it’s great to reduce waste, recycle or reuse what we have, and try to create less garbage, the reason we do this is to treat God’s creation with care–to be good stewards of what we have been given.

It’s not enough to be “green.” We should also be grateful.

Statistics: Green, Natural and Organic

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I confess. I’m not a huge fan of the whole “go green” fad. I truly think it’s a fad, and that it’s only going to be popular as long as someone profits from it. And I don’t believe all that hype about global warming and how it causes tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

That said, we do recycle, and I try not to waste things. I love to hang my clothes on the clothesline. But I consider that more “frugal” than “green” per se. I’m just trying to use resources wisely.

But I’m amused at all these statistics that are being rolled out on TV and in newspapers and magazines to encourage people to go green.

“If every American used just one less square of toilet paper per day, in a year that would be enough to save 60,000 acres of forest.”

OK, I made that one up. You know what I mean, though.

Sometimes I think those statistics in the media are just made-up, too. Who figures this stuff out? And do all those stats really motivate anyone? Or could someone be using resources more wisely in that regard?