IntenseDebate - ailanna

11 years ago @ elephant journal: Yoga... - Is Green a White Movem... · 0 replies · +2 points

Thanks, Jill. It also concerns me that environmentalism is sometimes marketed as a movement about buying differently, not making do with less and living more simply. I think it can be pretty daunting to embrace less voluntarily -- I know I'm still more wasteful than my parents since I didn't grow up in poverty, and everything around me makes it easy to consume more. The laundry line (and I'm grateful there's one at all) is definitely further away than the dryer! The key is to take these teachings from our immigrant parents and continue to apply them even in a culture that encourages excess.

12 years ago @ elephant journal: Yoga... - Does Being Childfree M... · 0 replies · +1 points

Hi Jill,

I didn't mean to imply that parents didn't have non-child reasons for caring about the environment. I have environmentalist friends who want children eventually, and I can certainly testify to the sincerity of their love for the planet and its creatures before they have the additional motivation of wanting to have their kids grow up in a healthy world. However, as a childfree person, I find that I feel very alienated from the human health / survival aspect of the environmental movement. Especially among green bloggers, the focus is intensely child-based. It doesn't speak to me, or to many of the other childfree environmentally active people I know. This is my perspective on what environmentalism looks like from someone who has no stakes in long term human survival. -Jennifer

12 years ago @ Brown GIrl in the Lane - Hippies · 0 replies · +1 points

Hah. I can relate -- my university was almost entirely made up of hippies. Although I was a committed liberal before heading off to college, I found myself becoming more centrist out of sheer defensiveness toward the militant vegans, dredlocked white people desperately trying not to be white, pot heads, and yoga goddesses I was surrounded by.

I don't mind Prius drivers, though. At least where I live, they tend to be decent drivers, unlike the tailgating BMWs and Lexuses. The people I know who have Priuses are tech geeks, not hippies.

12 years ago @ elephant journal: Yoga... - Animal Love - The Musi... · 0 replies · +2 points

It's definitely possible to love animals and still eat them, but many of the people who start thinking the way you do eventually stop eating them. I grew up with pets and have loved spending time with non-humans my whole life, yet only went vegetarian four years ago when I was faced with a choice to either start dealing with raw meat (which makes me feel sick) or to stop eating it. I didn't adopt the label vegetarian; if I had craved meat, I would have allowed myself to have some. Surprisingly, it never happened.

Even as a vegetarian or vegan, there are still plenty of ethical quandaries, although my conscience is happier now than when I ate meat. There is no diet or lifestyle that does no harm. Even growing plants involves killing mice, gophers, insects, and worms, exploiting bees, exploiting human workers. I think the best we can do is make thoughtful, conscious compromises that we can live with. For some of us, that means going vegan/vegetarian, but other paths are possible, too.

12 years ago @ Cloth Diapering Mama - Eco-inactivism at the ... · 0 replies · +3 points

Well done! I found you through this week's challenge. It sounds like you're a much more experienced plastic avoider than I am! I reuse those big 1lb lidded plastic tubs for the bulk bins and got around the milk thing by buying raw almonds in bulk and making my own almond milk. I attempted to make yogurt out of almond milk and failed. Oh well...

The produce stickers seem to be unavoidable unless you shop at the farmers' market all the time.
My recent post Change the World Wednesday: My Plastic Free Week

12 years ago @ GreenBeans - Calling All GreenBeans... · 0 replies · +3 points

I try to keep in mind that recycling comes after reusing and reducing and shop carefully to avoid ending up with a lot of packaging. I'm learning to make my own pizza (no boxes!) and cook most of my food from scratch. One thing that I'd like to be better about is bringing my own takeout boxes when I go out to eat. The actual recycling part is pretty simple -- our city just has one big collection bin for recyclables, and then we make occasional special trips to get rid of batteries, spent light bulbs, and e-waste.

13 years ago @ GreenBeans - Baby Steps to Cleaner,... · 1 reply · +1 points

I'm in! (Sort of. I went vegetarian for completely non-environmental reasons a few years ago, so every day is meatless.) I didn't learn to cook until after I stopped eating meat, which was helpful -- no favorite recipes to try to salvage. Tips...hmm. I think dishes that were meant to taste good without meat are more appealing than using a lot of substitutes -- good cuisines to venture into for vegetarian recipes are Indian, Thai, Chinese...actually, most Asian cuisines offer lots of vegetarian options without the heaviness of dairy, as western vegetarian food tends to focus on. Also, don't worry about protein. Even vegetarians and vegans in this country get way more than we need!

Here's one of my favorite vegetarian sandwich fillers. It does kind of taste like tuna/chicken salad, but it's good in its own right. http://yeahthatveganshit.blogspot.com/2007/08/moc...

13 years ago @ GreenBeans - Ahhh!! Sea Monsters Wa... · 1 reply · +2 points

We live in such a fascinating world, and we don't even know it most of the time. I 'met' some of these guys in the documentary Blue Planet -- if you haven't seen it, it is an amazing series. It and its companion series Planet Earth were actually fairly influential in waking me up to the extent of the impact humans have on the natural world.

13 years ago @ http://www.mysweetgree... - #21 Holiday Giveaway W... · 0 replies · +1 points

The body oil sounds perfect. I hadn't heard of this company before, so thanks for bringing it to my attention!
ailanna at hotmail dot com

13 years ago @ http://www.mysweetgree... - #19 Holiday Giveaway W... · 0 replies · +1 points

I love 'Where Ice Meets the Sky.' It would be awesome in my dining room!
ailanna at hotmail dot com

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