a year without toilet paper and wafflehouse
Posted on March 24, 2007
Filed Under environmental crisis, homeownership, snark, suburban joys | 12 Comments
Just when I was getting ready to admit that I’m having a really hard time making the conversion to CFL light bulbs (global warming or no global warming, the CFL bulb creates an ambiance startlingly like the interior of a Wafflehouse), the NYT publishes an article about the Beavan family and their commitment to a year of no-impact living. A married couple with a 2 year old daughter, the Beavans have given A LOT that is tasty and almost everything that is easy in order to detail the sacrifice required for planet change. They are currently eating only foods produced or grown within a 250-mile radius of their NYC apartment, they are living without appliances, toilet paper, delivery pizza, television, olive oil, elevators or carbon fuel powered transportation. They are even composting food waste in their apartment. Despite this ascetic lifestyle, Mr. Beavan is still blogging in order to chronicle his family’s experiment. 
In addition to the Beavan’s extreme commitment to halting global crisis, there is also the story of the fifteen year old Avery Hairston, who has founded ReLightNY, an organization that, with the help of several non-profit organizations, “will serve as a platform for spreading awareness on environmental issues.” RelightNY, with the help pf the Natural Resources Defense Council, Open Space Institute and HelpUSA, will be distributing the expensive CFL bulbs to lower-income residents of NYC.
Corporate America is also taking up the cause. Both Walmart and Starbucks corporations have made the change over to CFL lighting a corporate priority. According to Fast Company Magazine,
“In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers–100 million in all–one swirl bulb. In the process, Wal-Mart wants to change energy consumption in the United States, and energy consciousness, too. It also aims to change its own reputation, to use swirls to make clear how seriously Wal-Mart takes its new positioning as an environmental activist.”
So I’m thinking about keeping that CFL bulb in the bathroom as a nod to the Beavans and the Hairstons of the world. I mean really, if I eschew Wafflehouse lighting I may be sorry, given the sump pump in the basement is doing all it can. And global crisis is still in its infancy. But what about the mercury?
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