Tuesday 19th January 2010
by CarolineMy workplace now houses an environmentally friendly tankless water cooler. It taps into our main water line, filters the tap water, and dispenses it hot, lukewarm, or cold. It is marvelous (literally) to press a button and have water hot enough to brew tea within a few seconds.
Our ongoing conversation here about ways we can be more conscious is almost a matter of company policy more than moral fortitude, and the natural manner in which we all assume we will move toward a smaller carbon footprint and less waste is one of my favorite things about working here. Of course, in homes and in personal lives the dialogue can play out very differently. The New York Times ran a tragicomic piece on the rise in green issues among reasons to visit a therapist, like one California couple:
Mr. Fleming, who says he became committed to Ms. Cobb “before her high-priestess phase,” describes their conflicts as good-natured — mostly.
Even being a vegetarian has opened my eyes to how sensitive everyone is to feeling like they’re on the receiving end of someone’s judgment. “I don’t care what you eat, I’m just choosing for myself,” I hear myself say constantly. And sometimes I forget how easy it is to be a vegetarian in a huge city, or how understanding my parents or other people from previous generations have been for me. Imagine if this were your life, from the NYT piece:
If Ms. Petso prepares a vegan meal for the family, her parents prepare hot dogs to go alongside. Her parents serve on throwaway Styrofoam plates; she grabs a plate that can be cleaned and reused. Her mother, who says she prefers the way food tastes when it is served on Styrofoam, notes that washing dishes has its own environmental costs.
“She prefers the way food tastes when it is served on Styrofoam”?!
3 responses
i was totally vegan a long time ago.
I decided not to read the trustafarians article when it came out, and I regret these months I’ve lived without it. Thank you, Scott.
Definitely on the nose about these green issues crystallizing deeper ones. At the same time, our attitudes toward the big-picture endurance of humankind and the planet we inhabit is a newer facet of compatibility. It’s like when they added umami to the four existing taste families.
What an article. Right up there with the trustafarians in Williamsburg in terms of entertainment value.
I wonder to what extent these ‘green disputes’ are just another tool through which underlying disputes or disagreements are aired? Take the styrofoam example–no way is that anything other than mom rationalizing a more generalized resistance. The article seems to play up the idea that environmental conflicts add stress to an otherwise healthy relationship, when perhaps all they do is provide people a novel means with which to articulate underlying resentments. That is to say, the “value gap” isn’t a problem in and of itself unless someone perceives it as one. I dunno.
Still chewing on styrofoam. Maybe it just retains heat better than ceramic?