Living Green

Posted by Shirley Siluk Gregory Dec 20, 2006

Some things about living green are so easy, they're practically no-brainers: things like using compact fluorescent lightbulbs, turning your thermostat a little higher or lower, and recycling. But other green habits are harder to adopt and keep.

What habits? Oh, things like wrapping gifts in old magazine pages, which -- while noble -- still kind of screams "cheap and cheesy" to many people. Or not flushing the toilet when only liquids are involved, which still send the message, "Yuck!" in our so-called civilized society.

Not that these habits aren't right and worthwhile ... they're just harder to adopt because of the currently accepted social mores and practices. Being a green trailblazer can sometimes be embarrassing or even a little painful.

But here's the thing: sooner or later, the pressure will be on everyone to adopt green living habits, inconvenient, embarrassing or uncomfortable though they might be. The growing burden we're placing on natural resources, and the increasing scarcity of those resources that's likely in coming years, will reach a tipping point that will make the things we now take for granted too rare and too expensive to waste.

When that day comes, the habits some now call cheap, cheesy or yucky will probably take on new adjectives: smart, economical and responsible.

In the meantime, though, I have to confess that I'll probably stick with simply recycling my old wrapping paper for another day, and saving those flushes only when there's no one else around.