Monthly Archives: April 2010

Being Eco Friendly Despite the Disapproval of Others

There are many things that makes being eco friendly challenging for individuals. The lack of support they often face can be a big one.

This is something my husband and I deal with at times. His parents aren’t precisely fans of the environmental movement, although they’re very good about recycling. But they also make disparaging remarks about environmentalism.

Sometimes what it takes is showing how much more effective being eco friendly can be. They weren’t too sure about our choice to cloth diaper our youngest, but they are certainly enthusiastic about the likelihood that she will potty train at a younger age than the other two. They can get behind that idea easily.

In many cases, that’s what it takes. Don’t just phrase it all as being better for the environment when people say they don’t see the point. Show them how it benefits you or them personally. Most people can get behind that.

It doesn’t always work, of course. The value presented has to be one that appeals to them more than the convenience or comfort of doing things the usual way.

It’s also a simple fact of life that not everyone will approve of every single thing you do. It doesn’t matter what you do. Someone is going to find something to disagree with or disapprove of.

If you’re trying to bring people over to your way of thinking when they disapprove of your environmental beliefs, don’t start a ton of arguments with them unless that’s what works with that person. Many people do better with being given the information regularly until it works its way into their thoughts as their own idea. Pushing isn’t always the solution.

That can be hard to face, especially considering the urgency of many environmental topics. But if it works better than shouting at each other, you use the tools you have to.

The topic of global warming and climate change meets disparagement from many people, for example. Even if they agree that the planet is overall warming, many say it’s not human caused and that we’ll cope with what happens. The very real human costs aren’t real enough to them to make a difference, and the future is too vague.

In this area I often change the focus. See what they know about ocean acidification, pollution in general, the problems farmland has due to overuse of fertilizers, the problems with pesticides, and so forth. These are topics you can get into that may be concrete enough to get some agreement that action in that area is warranted. It’s better than no action.

Sometimes you just have to face that some people will never change. For some it seems like practically a matter of personal honor to disregard the environment. They’re not going to change their minds easily and they may be vocal about their refusals.

You may not be able to change everyone’s mind about even the simplest of environmentally friendly choices, but you can try to work with people to help them see where they are willing to change.

Green Your Personal Finances and Cut the Hassle

I don’t know about you, but I hate getting both bills and bank statements in the mail. Even when they’re relatively good news, they probably come with various ads or inserts that do nothing more than add to the recycle bin.

Not to mention, you know, having to keep track of when everything’s due. There are many other things I’d rather think about. With so many companies having websites, there are few companies where I can’t avoid getting statements in the mail.

Go Electronic!

Getting electronic statements is much nicer than getting paper ones. Sure, they still throw ads in, but they’re easier to ignore, even if you have to click past.

But my favorite part about electronic bills is that most companies will let you schedule your payments. You don’t have to remember the due date; just make sure the bill is reasonable and the funds to pay it are available in your bank account. You can have an automatic payment take care of the rest.

More and more companies are either simply stopping paper statements once you go electronic or repeatedly requesting you to go all electronic until you do so that they can stop sending paper statements. They like saving money, both in terms of not having to print and send all that paper mail, and by not having to pay people to process payments that come in through the mail.

Support Women’s Education Worldwide to Help Fight Overpopulation

The size of the human population on this planet has much to do with how much damage our species does. There’s a lot of us, and while in some countries the population is shrinking, in others it’s still growing.

There are a lot of reasons for this. In many areas, a large family is still needed to ensure that the parents will have enough support. In many areas, too many children still die at young ages.

I’m no fan of telling people how many kids they should have. That’s a very personal decision. But I am a firm believer in doing what we can to help people choose to have smaller families.

Educated Women Choose to Have Fewer Women on Average

This isn’t a blanket statement saying that all educated women choose to have a small family. Some choose larger ones. But there are a number of studies that show that giving women more education results in smaller average family sizes.

Other factors have an impact too, of course. Women who marry young have larger average family sizes. Some cultures push much harder for large family sizes. Access to any sort of family planning effects family size. And you can’t forget the many who believe that having as many children as God gives them is the right way to live.

Is a Smaller Family Size Good for Everyone?

I hope the answer to that question is as obvious to you as it is to me. Of course it isn’t the best solution for everyone. Different situations mean people have different needs.

But it is a good thing for many. Fewer children means the parents have fewer expenses related to raising them. It may be easier to educate them. The mother has more chances to earn money, whether at home or at a job.

It also is easier on the mother’s body. Pregnancy has its risks, and these are higher in poorer countries. It may be a wonderful risk in many ways, and most women undertake those risks willingly, but the risk is still there.

How Does Education Help?

The more education a woman gets, the more likely she is to know what resources are available to help her control how many children she bears. She’s also more likely goals beyond bearing children, and more likely to be able to work toward those goals.

It’s not all easy, of course. If the culture she’s in is not accepting of smaller family sizes or of contraception, she’s going to face pressure. But in most cases acceptance increases over time.

Women who get an education marry later on average.  I don’t mean “get a college education,” I mean even a few years of school. This means they’re more likely to start their families a little later, and so probably have fewer children.

She may also be better able to provide educational opportunities for her children. Much depends on what is available, but also an educated mother is better able to help in her children’s education.

More educated women also have more options open to them in how they can contribute to the economy. They can speak out for their community.

How Do We Help?

The best way to help women worldwide get more access to education is to support organizations that help make schools that are open to girls. Central Asia Institute for example, works to create community-based education in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with a focus on girls.

Wanna Go Camping Sooner?

Well, you don’t have to go camping necessarily. I suppose you could just make a day trip of it. From April 17-25, 2010, all National Parks are offering free admission. Sounds like a lot of fun to me, and visit the link to get all the details.

The various parks may have different activities. Saturday April 24 is for kids to learn to be Junior Rangers at certain locations. There are a variety of projects for volunteers and other events. you’ll have to check to see what’s happening in parks in your range.

Even if you don’t decide to go camping, this is a great chance to head out to one National Park or another. For some parks this is a pretty significant savings; others are normally pretty inexpensive to visit, but free is free!

How Well Do You Combine Your Errands?

As a mom, I generally have a ton of stuff to get done, both at home and elsewhere. It can be pretty chaotic some days. Tuesdays are the worst for me, as my son has speech therapy in the morning, both older kids have karate in the evening, not to mention trying to get my youngest down for her nap and my oldest home from school.

That nap’s the real challenge. First speech therapy interferes with its usual schedule, but picking my oldest up from school means it has to wait even longer.

On the plus side, it’s a great day for me to combine errands.

Tuesdays are also the days that I do the grocery shopping most weeks. Why not? I have a significant part of an hour to kill while my son’s in speech therapy. Sitting and waiting for the class to end is no good; neither is going home and suddenly having to pack up to go get him with less than an hour at home.

I love combining errands like that. It’s both time and fuel efficient.

Using my minivan as efficiently as possible is important to me. It’s much more environmentally friendly that way. A warmed up vehicle uses fuel more efficiently. It can save miles of driving.

Other errands can be combined too. Where I live, there are grocery stores near enough, but for just about anything else, it’s a minimum 20 minutes driving each way. We try to combine every trip we can. I even try to have my husband stop off and do some types of errands on his way home from work if he’s not too tired. It’s just much more efficient.

Try to think about how you can combine errands before you head out. Make a list if it helps you to remember everything you need to buy or do. You’ll save time, gas and wear and tear on your vehicle. Not a bad deal for being eco friendly to boot.