A Big, Green, Brouhaha

Every now and then I read an article that raises far more feathers than I think it should. Such was an article in the New York Times (NYT) last week, “The Year Without Toilet Paper”.

The gist of it is that a couple in New York are undergoing an experiment to live as green as possible for a year. They’ve given up many things, including, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, planes, trains, automobiles and, of course, toilet paper. A fascinating aside is that they also have a two-year-old daughter, which, I know, makes some of their sacrifices even more difficult. And, also, the fact that one can, in fact, live without olive oil. (The horror! And no, I’m not joking.)

Difficult for many, it seems, is that this experiment is not being conducted by your average treehuggers. Alas, both are writers living in a Manhattan apartment building, with a doorman (read $$$). They also employ a cleaning lady. The husband describes the wife as Prada-wearing and she herself confesses to a pre-experiment shopping spree that included two pair of calf-high Chloe boots whose price amounted to something like two week’s salary. Ouch!

On the whole they seem to be a sort of mosh between, yuppie privilege and ambitious self-sacrifice motivated by an awareness that said privileged existence has environmental consequences.

The fact that there is, of course, a blog that documents this whole experiment and a planned book and movie makes the whole enterprise seem like it could be, as the writer from the Times noted, “an ethically murky exercise in self-promotion”.

Now I get that there are some interesting contradictions here. But I have been surprised that, since the article came out there has been a whole spew of venom directed towards this guy. Remarks on this guy’s blog and other sites that have picked up the story, include suggestions (hopefully, if not tastefully in jest) that they be gunned down with uzis, and tracking them down and (otherwise?) killing them. Now, I don’t think any of these remarks were in the least bit serious. But a lot of folks just really seem downright hateful.

And I must say, I don’t get it. Are we so afraid of disturbing our way of life, one that, despite all of our complaints, amounts to a pretty cushy existence as residents of the US? Seriously, what’s wrong with trying to see if one can give up some of their creature comforts for the good of the planet?

Sure, part of the caricature of the couple created by the story seems a little gross, especially if one believes that the entire point is to create a vehicle to promote this guy’s blog, book, movie, whatever. And telling your cleaning lady she can’t use paper towels is a landmine of contradictions. (Figure out an environmentally appropriate way to clean it yourself, maybe?)

But -and this could just be my own belief in the general good intentions of most people coming through here- I do believe they are sincere in their efforts to see what they can reasonably do to make a difference. My guess is that they will decide to reintroduce toilet paper at the end of their experiment. But what if 10 other sacrifices they’ve made remain in place? Or, at the very least, what if they continue to think through each choice they make in their every day living that will have an effect on the environment. That’s more than most people do.

What’s clear is that everybody should be doing something. Something more than reading, thinking, and talking about how our planet seems to be going to hell in a handbasket. I was happy to see someone making a concerted effort at it. What’s wrong with taking the initiative to discover exactly what we can and can’t live without? Because at some point we’ve all got to figure it out.

In the end, I think we’re going to end up keeping many more of our modern conveniences than we discard. But how are we going to know we can’t forego using say, plastic sandwich bags, until we see what it’s like to live without them.


NYT Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/garden/22impact.html?em&ex=1175054400&en=a7e68d0b61fa2583&ei=5087%0A

Subject of Times article's Blog:

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/