Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Buy Nothing Lent

Today is Mardi Gras and Lent begins tomorrow. I like Lent. It is all about self-sacrifice and/or making yourself and the world a better place. The "and/or" comes in because I know people (women, okay? They're all women) who practice self-sacrifice to such an extreme in the course of their regular lives that they never quite get around to caring for themselves. So Lent becomes a time when they can resolve to be nice to themselves, cut themselves some slack rather than the other way around.

Anyway, I've been thinking about doing a carbon fast for Lent. I heard of this when I gave a talk on Sunday about the morality of climate change. So I went to the site and signed up to receive daily emails about ways I can reduce my carbon emissions in the course of my daily life. It seemed like a good idea, but I thought it also seemed like it had the potential to be a big waste of time. That is to say, anything designed to be relevant to the largest number of people is probably only going to be partially-at-best relevant to me. I didn't want to receive tips that didn't apply six out of seven days and let my Lent go to waste. So I signed up, but then I thought about what I would do if I were tailoring this just for me.

Carbon Fast Rules:
* Read the daily email I get and decide whether or not it applies to me. If so, do it.
* Do other things (see below).

So where do I spend my energy (emissions)? Well, for starters, this glowing screen I'm staring at right now. I am not exaggerating when I say I easily spend 10 to 16  hours a day looking at one computer or another. Granted, 8 of those are at work. But then I come home and I watch TV online or I mess around on reddit and other learn-about-the-weird-and-interesting-and-beautiful-things-going-on-around-the-world websites. Seriously, this technology holds my life in its digitally rendered hands. So that I can cut. It will be real change in my life. It will require mindfulness and a sense of sacrifice. It will also press me to do other things I enjoy, like reading and taking my doggie on longer walks and working on creative projects.

Computer Fast Rules:
* Limit myself to one non-work hour a day on my computer (arbitrarily chosen because I do do responsible people things online as well as messing around, so I still need time for that).
* Exempt: non-work work, like writing articles.
* Exempt: watching TV online with Michael on his computer (because hey, it's a thing old married people do together).

But what else? That may reduce my computer emissions by about a third, but I emit in other ways too. But already we really only drive when necessary. Appliances that stay on need to (fridge, etc.). I guess I can be better about turning off lights and unplugging non-essentials. But those things didn't seem to be too big. They couldn't possibly be my biggest emissions as a ... shoots, as a consumer American. It hit me like a bolt of lightning. Didn't I just say this in that talk I gave two days ago? And wasn't giving that talk the whole driver behind me thinking about the carbon fast to begin with?

So, here's the talk:



tl;dr I say toward the end that especially for us Americans, the largest consumer nation in the world, a huge action we can take on climate change is to stop buying everything. And hell, for me? I buy most things on Amazon, shipped to Hawaii from god knows where just for me. I've lived pretty simply most of my life, but now that I'm not so desperately poor anymore, I'll admit I've been slowly edging from the purchasing of things I Need to the purchasing of things I Want to the purchasing of, you know, things. I've struggled with Buy Nothing Day or Buy Nothing Week before. So how is a Buy Nothing Lent going to go?

Buy Nothing Lent Rules:
* Don't buy things.
* Exemption: gifts. I have gift things coming up. I may not have time to make heart-felt wonderfulness, and I'm not gonna say, "Sorry, Dad. But won't your 71st birthday be just as special next year? I'll get you a gift then." Etc.
* Exemption: food. I have a feeling that the very nature of what I'll be doing this Lent is going to lead to lots of thought, consideration, and conversations about emissions and food. I bet you that I'm gonna be thinking about the virtues of local foods and vegetarian diets and non-processed food made out of food and the like... but one thing at a time. I don't want to overwhelm myself and set myself up for failure. I want this experience to create lasting changes, and lasting changes often start small and grow as they become habituated. So for now, I'm just gonna say food is exempt. I reserve the right to be better than that, but I don't guarantee it. And yes, by exempting food I do mean to say that I will be having kangaroo steaks helicoptered in thrice daily from Australia. A girl's gotta eat.
* Addendum: If I really want to buy something and Lent isn't over yet, I need to have a long talk with myself about Want versus Need. And then another talk with myself about Bought versus Borrowed. And then another talk with myself about Local versus Non-local. And then another talk with myself about New versus Used. Etc.

So that's it! My own personal carbon fast for Lent. This might be a bigger challenge than that time I gave up cheese.

Which I don't have to do this time because food is exempt, thank God.

1 comment:

Cindy said...

You are so smart. :) The whole idea is grand, but I especially love the addendum about the serious talk you must have with yourself if you want to buy something. I know I am often guilty of not asking those questions before I purchase things, though I've gotten a lot better about it.