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Hewing
the environmental principle |
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August
6, 2008 - Whoever and wherever we are, our fingerprints
and footprints leave marks in our physical surroundings. Some of the
marks are benign; meaning reversing them requires no Herculean efforts.
Others, on the other hand, are of the indelible sort. Much effort,
money and expertise will be needed to undo them, in some cases to
no avail; in that things might have gone too far already. If you have
just whacked the last butterfly of the species, there are no second
acts for that poor critter.
So how do we counteract our daily exactly non-benign ecological footprints?
Will the outcome of the off setting effort be worth the try in the
end in measurable and visible ways? I believe so, as the following
two cases show maybe.
Ushma Pandya typifies a different life style; although the fact that
she lives in New York means she has a different life style from those
of us who live in Addis to begin with. But environmentally speaking
she conducts herself in a way that makes her unusual even in her own
country. In other words she hews the environmental principle and is
proud of it.
A recent issue of Newsweek describes that aspect of her life as follows:
"Consultant Ushma Pandya is on the road for much of the year.
So when she travels, the New Yorker takes a number of steps to keep
her carbon footprint small. Pandya, 33, packs light (thus theoretically
saving airplane fuel), stays at major hotels with well articulated
green policies, rents smaller or hybrid cars, turns off the heat or
air conditioning when she leaves her hotel room, writes notes to make
sure the hotel staff keeps it off, brings her toiletries in refillable
bottles and chastises the housekeeping staff if they change her sheets
or towels during her stay".
By all measures, the lady is particular. But our planet needs many
more kind of her people. Her behavior goes to show that if each person,
and that makes 6-plus billion people mind you, play our bit part;
we could leave the world in as good shape or even a better one than
we received it.
Note the story of another lady, Sharon Row, from the same country
and in fact from the same state. She couldn't stand the offending
plastic that showered department stores and myriad other places where
buying and selling took place.
So, some 2 decades back, she began working or researching on reusable
bags. She was not, of course, the first person to have discovered
them. Reusable bags have been around for long, long time.. Every housewife
since the beginning of shopping had been using them before the advent
of the plastic bags.
What she did was reinvent it. Better still, she knew how to market
it. Her bags are made of strings, canvas and recyclable materials.
She tried and succeeded in wooing many celebrities to tote her bags
which are branded as ECOBAG. Besides, she made handy, hip and user
friendly bags. What more do you need?
Times have changed. The fact is that many millions more people have
got on the ecological bandwagon and have become green-conscious helps.
And that helps. Sustainability, one core attribute of reusable bags
helps too. And as Newsweek put it, reusable bags bestow green-pop
culture "bragging rights". They lighten your guilt. And
when celebrities use them, that is even better.
The main point in referring to the life style of one lady and creativity
of another lady is this: In a country like Ethiopia those with money
can chip in or even invest in a big way in environmental projects.
Those with useful ideas, like Sharon Rowe, with their creativity can
help us leapfrog ecological stumbling blocks. The rest, that is those
of us who, neither have the means in money terms nor necessarily possess
new ideas, but who leave behind most footprints, can play major part
even in more mundane ways.
Newsweek concludes thus, "For now, reusable are hip. Whole
Foods, which stopped using plastic bags this April, has sold
in excess of 2 million bags in many styles. The Container
Store introduced a reusable made of recycled billboard…
Consumer attitudes toward reusables have radically changed. It is
not a fad. It is a life style change." Now that is what I call
going mainstream.
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