This last weekend saw us visit the Global Awareness Day at the Arizona Science Center. The Arizona Science Center is an interactive science center intended to educate people (mostly kids) about science. We're members there and I had gotten an e-mail flyer advertising the awareness day. I knew it would be a great opportunity for Alex to get exposed to a lot of environmental groups that Michelle and I already knew about but that he wouldn't have. He loved it. We practically had to drag him from each exhibit. The obvious ones like the Sierra Club were there, but smaller groups that I hadn't even heard about like the Southwest Wildlife Rehabilitation and Educational Foundation were also there. There were very nice and have a cool mission:
Southwest Wildlife Rehabilitation and Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization that specializes in rescuing and rehabilitating injured and orphaned wildlife native to the southwest, educating today's youth on the importance of native wildlife and the environment, and encouraging educational career opportunities in environmental science.
There was also some representatives from the Light Rail that is being built in downtown Phoenix. It's set to be operational by the end of '08. It's an idea long overdue in the Valley and I think one that will succeed -- even in a place where idiots are way too in love with cars.
I think the booth that we liked the most was the company, a.k.a Green. It's an eco-friendly building supply center in Scottsdale. Some of the cooler things we saw there were cork and bamboo flooring. But the one we liked the most was countertops made with recycled glass, like these, Enviroglas
I was all trying to show my enviro cred on this day, wearing my Urban Outfitters' global warming ... it's not cool t-shirt and chatting up anybody that would listen (and even those who wouldn't) about going on a Sierra Club service trip. I'm sure all these people who are living a green lifestyle every day of their lives and making a true difference with little fanfare thought I was just some lame yuppie with a guilty conscience. And they'd be right.
But shit's going on and I'm looking to blow up my comfortable, staid little suburban existence. Stay tuned.
2 comments:
I don't think it's right to judge others for the level of 'greenness' they're able to achieve, but you're right, I think the real treehuggin, solar power, commune livin off the grid types snub their noses at us and say we're not doing enough.
You know what? Fuck them. You do what you can. What is within your means. There's plenty of people out there not doing a damn thing - and those are the people to wag your fingers at.
Light rail... what a concept! Do you think people will ride it?
The people at the Awareness Day actually weren't judgmental at all. I just had my own little inner dialog going. They were really about realistic things that each of us could do that are actually economical and not pie-in-the sky things like wiring your whole house for solar or something like that. This is more about me judging my own "greenness". And selfishly, it's about more than that. I want to live in the thick of it where I can ride a train or bus to culture. I don't want to drive 70 miles a day in the course of my job. I'm sick of my truck being an endless money pit.
I really want to stress that any of my comments on "greenness" are more about me than anyone else. I've said in past that there are only so many things that each of us can do within the framework of where we live and how much money we have. I already feel that you have me beat in spades soley by the fact of where you live and that you use mass transit. You could be burning barrels of oil in your backyard and you'd still have less of a footprint of the earth than I do.
I think light rail will fly. Places where you would never imagine them putting light rail in (Salt Lake City) have had great success.
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