Monday 10/14/19
This week I’ve been reading a really good book. It’s inspired me to change everything about the way I live. This book is called “We are the weather” by Jonathan Safran Foer. I’m finding this book revolutionary and I’m feeling extremely motivated to change. However I am aware that for most people this book would be difficult to read and they would remain un-moved. The case is laid out eloquently in this New York Times book review by Mark Bittman and as he explains, we cannot rely on individuals making the correct choices. We need sweeping structural changes and we need them now.
“Climate change is a crisis, and we need government to lead us in attacking it. We also need government to lead in attacking the food crisis: We need new laws and stronger enforcement of existing ones that will make it difficult or impossible for industrial animal production to remain profitable; we need to make it easy to buy food produced by sustainable, even regenerative farming; and we need to make it inexpensive for people to buy or be served that kind of food, perhaps in what amounts to communal kitchens — a different way of doing “fast food.” Generally, we need to limit exploitation — to tax and even break up the agribusinesses responsible for ecocide and the increasingly global epidemic of chronic disease — and we need to enhance cooperation.”
Until I have figured out how to force government to enact sweeping structural changes for the betterment of society and the survival of our planet I will make the right individual choices for myself and my family.
Today I chose not to drive my car. I have a 16 month old baby and two dogs, I live on an Island with a public transit bus system that get's me near to, but not ever AT my destinations. The car is incredibly convenient and so so easy to use. It's right there, sitting in my driveway, full of gas, with a carseat installed in the back seat and a place for my dogs to sit in the way-back. It's so easy, I can go to all the beautiful walks I love and I can go to a friends house or to the grocery store without having to think ahead or plan my day at all! I'm incredibly privileged. My husband works at a good job and we can afford to have me stay at home with our baby, we can afford to buy organic vegetables and we can afford to own a car.
Today I used my privilege for a positive impact and I chose not to drive my car. There's simply no time for convenience anymore. We are running out of time, the planetary system is near to being irretrievably broken by us and yet we are failing to adapt and save ourselves.
If we were on a foundering passenger ship floating on the vast, stormy depths of the cold Atlantic ocean we would understand our situation better. There would be alarms sounding, people running through the passageways, the captain shouting orders from the bridge, machinery grinding and smoking, the whole ship might be shuddering under strain, we would see the waves beating the hull, we would feel the adrenaline-fueled urgency. We would know that we were struggling for our survival.
Our planet is a ship, a sort of space-ship of rock, surrounded by the cold unsympathetic vacuum of un-livable space, and we are foundering. There is no lifeboat, there is no nearby island we can swim too. There is only our struggling ship, the earth. But we can't see our situation that way at all. We don't want to. I guess it would require too much adaptation too quickly.
The reason I chose not to drive my car today is because I know that I don’t fully comprehend the crisis we are in. But just because I cannot understand a thing doesn't mean I can't act. As Jonathan Safran Foer explains in his incredible book “We are the weather”, when we see and hear an ambulance coming up behind us on the highway we don't have to understand the nature of the crisis to know there is a crisis and get out of the way. We get out of the way because it's just what we do. Not driving my car needs to become something that I just do.
It was actually quite fun not driving today. I used my bike and towed the baby in the trailer behind me. We went to the thrift store, the grocery store, the library and the local farm. It was a beautiful October day and I felt exhilarated to be alive. On my bicycle I could see ducks in the pond as I passed, I could smell a sudden waft of pine from the dark shadowed forest as I passed, I could feel the smack of cool air and the brush of warm sunshine on my face. My legs burned, my eyes squinted, the baby held her helmet back with one hand and watched the scenes go by. She didn't complain about going into the trailer the way she complains about going into her carseat. She got to face forward and enjoy the view.
My bags of groceries fit perfectly in the back compartment of the trailer, the library books fit perfectly by my babies feet. It all felt super easy and fun. Don’t get too cocky, I reminded myself, this is just your first day.
Tuesday 10/15/19
Today I chose not to eat eggs for breakfast. I used to have two fried eggs for breakfast almost every day. I used to keep a flock of chickens and I ate their eggs and felt so virtuous about my locavore lifestyle. I gave away my chickens last year and began buying organic eggs at the grocery store. I still felt virtuous until I thought about it and realized that the factory farming of even organic “free range” chickens for their eggs is not only abusive to the chickens it's also abusive to my baby's future on this planet.
I also used to eat cheddar cheese with everything, but I don't eat dairy products anymore either. At first my habits changed because during pregnancy I felt sick whenever I ate dairy, and I thought “huh maybe that means it's not good for me.” Ever since I stopped eating cheese and yogurt I have noticed I have less mucus and phlegm and I get fewer sinus infections. These days I don't eat dairy products because the dairy industry (and all farmed animal production) is actively causing climate change and ruining my baby's hope for a live-able future on this planet.
Wednesday 10/16/19
My legs are already getting stronger from biking. This evening I noticed that the little muscle on the inside of my knees is bigger than it was at the beginning of the week. It's amazing how the body adapts to changing demands!
I was sitting in bed beside my husband and we were watching “The Great British Bake Off” as we have been all month. It's inspired me to begin baking my own bread and cookies and we find the predictable but varied format of each episode uniquely entertaining and soothing at the same time. Perfect bedtime tv. However now that I'm thinking about climate action 24/7 I can't fully relax during this show anymore. The quantities of eggs and butter and cream that go into all these baking challenges is mind boggling! And sometimes they make a mistake and end up throwing the whole mix in the trash (they really need compost bins on set!) and the waste is monumental. But the real reason I'm not relaxing is that the model is all wrong! These kinds of entertaining cooking shows have inspired many ordinary people to learn to cook or bake, which is excellent! This show and other tv shows like it, set a powerful example for the population. However they are modeling an unsustainable worldview where unlimited consumption of animal products is enthusiastically promoted and expected. If these kinds of cooking shows talked about the impact that animal farming has on our planet and our climate then I believe the international conversation about climate change would be very very different.
I've decided to doggedly contact every cooking show on NPR as a starting place. I will make the case that they need to shift the focus away from animal products and towards a sustainable diet to prevent climate disaster.
A sustainable diet for a livable future. Imagine if celebrity chefs were talking about that!
Thursday 10/17/19
Today was the first time my decision to not drive on the weekdays had any real impact. So far this week I've been able to bike to get groceries, bike to meet a friend at the library, bike to get some more clothing at the thrift store. But today I was invited to a baby singing group at the Library in a different town. The bus schedule just did not line up. It's the shoulder season on MV and the bus routes are slimming down in response to the decline in tourists so the #6 only passes my street once every hour. The baby was napping when the earlier bus passed our street and by the time she was likely to wake up I could tell that the next bus would get us to the library exactly 45 minutes late. I texted my friend to tell her that we wouldn't be able to make it because I had made a commitment not to drive during the week. At first my gut instinct was to feel apologetic and foolish for making my life so much more difficult than it had to be but I knew that this was the first test of my new convictions. After all the whole reason that I made this commitment not to drive is because it seems unconscionable make my life easier in the moment while destroying my daughters future. As soon as I sent my text I felt better and knew that it would be easier and easier to explain my new lifestyle to others. Then my friend surprised me by immediately offering to pick us up so we could carpool! What a fun opportunity to spend time together in a car rather than driving separately! The library was closed due to storm induced power outages so we ended up gathering at a nearby home of a different friend and our babies all played together.
The storm was a big autumn Nor'Easter with high winds and the power went out up at my parents house. My mom is coming down with a cold so I sewed two hot water bottle cozies from the sleeves of an old sweater and sent her off to bed. I also sewed a woolen diaper cover from the front panel and sleeve cuffs of the same old sweater. Then I discovered that what was left of the sweater had inadvertently created a nifty stylish vest that fits me perfectly!
I cooked a big dish at breakfast time and we ate it for lunch and dinner! 5 diced sweet potatoes, 3 diced beets, one diced leek and a chopped up head of Bok Choi all sauteed to soft caramelized perfection on the stove top. I fried up a plantain and we ate the whole thing with avacado. Yumm!
Monday 10/21/19
This morning I carried my baby down my street to the bus stop and we rode the #13 past the windy empty beach and the russet colored marshes, through the empty streets of down town oak bluffs and around the harbor to Vineyard Haven. Hazel sat beside me on the bus bench and watched the other riders and the scenery flicking past the big windows. She seemed to enjoy the ride and the freedom of not being strapped into her seat. When we got off the bus in Vineyard Haven we walked up a few blocks of rustling autumn leaves to the Family Center for the morning playtime group. We hung out with the other babies and toddlers for 45 minutes and then we walked back downtown, got back on the #13 and rode home again.
It was so easy. Why haven't I been doing this all along?
The main reason is that the bus takes more time and the schedule simply isn't as flexible as a baby requires. Until this month my daughter was taking two naps every day and the possibility of missing our bus connection and being stuck away from home when she was due for a nap kept me from trying it out. Now she's taking just one nap and we have much more available time in the morning and afternoon. The winter bus schedule gets sparse and waiting at an unprotected bus stop in winter weather doesn't sound that appealing but nevertheless I'm excited to take the bus as often as we can!
Tuesday 10/22/19
This morning my baby and I biked to the grocery store. The sky was gray and the wind was chilly but the ride is short and we were bundled up. I prowled the aisles of Stop &Shop looking for products with little or no plastic packaging. It's a real challenge. In the end most of my food involved some kind of plastic. The only foods I could find without plastic were a bunch of collard greens, bananas, canned coconut milk, bottled pizza sauce and avacados. I have a hard time justifying the rest of my purchases (bagged apples, plastic wrapped vegan sausages, bagged frozen raspberries, boxed chickpea pasta with a little plastic window, waxed cardboard soymilk carton with a plastic cap, white vinegar in a glass bottle but with a plastic cap) but they were the best options I could find in a store full of plastic. It's a bit like a horror movie now when I go into a grocery store, all our beautiful fresh foods entombed in plastic like bugs trapped in a spider net. The creepy horror music gets louder in my head when I think that each piece of plastic around me will serve it's brief function as a package and then continue to exist for the next 500 years in a landfill somewhere.
Every time I go to the store I feel frustrated that I still haven't found alternatives. Luckily we have a brand new bulk foods Co-op that just opened in Vineyard Haven so I'm excited to order everything I need to make my own breakfast cereal, my own hummus, my own bread and crackers. Now all I need is more time in which to make them. Making your own food takes a lot of time and I am confounded by how a household with two working parents will ever be able to make the switch to plastic free living.