Down Home Environmentalism
November 17, 2008
Three recent events—the troubled economy, the presidential election, and, on a personal note, the death of my grandmother—drove me back to a book that’s been sitting on my shelf for a while: 1,628 Country Shortcuts From 1,628 Country People.
My late grandmother, a country woman her whole life, gave me this book, compiled by the editors of “Country” magazine, and indicated that it was the sort of book “someone like [me] might enjoy.” I’ve never lived in the country, and can’t appreciate advice on how to get an orphaned piglet to eat or how to loosen tight hay bales, so how would this book be applicable to my life? Well, in the case of these hints and daily-life tidbits, less=more, and simple=green. Cleaning suggestions center around safe, household substances like white vinegar and baking soda. Worn-out socks, old milk jugs, pizza cutters, and fishnet stockings can all be repurposed and reused. The life of tools and furniture can be lengthened with a touch of petroleum jelly or some dental floss.I love this creative, non-consumerist approach to reducing, reusing, and recycling. You see, nothing makes me more cynical about “green living” than its marketing appeal. We all operate within a consumerist society, and environmentalists are no different. Ecologically sustainable alternatives to everyday items that contain harmful chemicals and materials are necessary. But green stuff is still stuff, and if we’re frugal and creative, we’ll find that the best answer is to have less of it.
Lately, because of the economic downturn, everyone’s been buying a lot less stuff. Retail sales continue to plummet, and many businesses are struggling. This enforced penny-pinching can either be good or bad for the cause of creation care. We can go back to buying the (often) cheaper-but-more-dangerous foods and chemicals we bought before the eco-conscious bug struck, or we can live a little more like these 1,628 country people: cooking meals from scratch, repurposing once-used tools and materials, innovating with simple solutions.
My grandmother and I had very different political views, but as Christians we both understood the value of good stewardship, and saw the importance of actions like those recommended in this book. The electoral map that lit our television screens on November 7 indicated that the more rural states, where many of this book’s contributors are from, constitute an area not immediately associated with environmentalism. Coastal areas, on the other hand, largely went blue, and are considered to be home to more vocally “green” advocates. Gross over-generalizations aside, is it possible that people in the red states—like most of this book’s contributors—are unintentionally living in a “green” manner, and that people in the blue states, often more intentionally “going green,” may be overlooking these resourceful methods as part of their green goals?
In the crucible of an economic crisis, there may be hope that both sides of the aisle will look to frugal, creative solutions for saving resources (both monetary and ecological), and that sharing different kinds of knowledge and ideas will provoke some fabulous down-home environmentalism.
Some ideas like those from these 1,628 folks can be found here, here, and here. Go ahead and share your own tried-and-true down-home green suggestions!
Kendra Langdon Juskus is managing editor for Creation Care magazine. She lives with her husband in Illinois.
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3 Responses to “Down Home Environmentalism”
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right on!
enjoyed the article, Kendra.
I absolutely agree. Some things I watched my grandmother – who grew up during the Depression – do out of her habit of frugality, I now do for environmental reasons.
I’m also glad you’ve problematized the association of “blue”/politically progressive with environmentally responsible and “red”/politically conservative with environmentally irresponsible. I’m a proud “blue” Democrat, but I know equally-proud Republicans who are very interested in environmental issues. Those of us on the left who try to “own” the environmental cause do that cause – and the people who support it – a great disservice.