Compete for Green?

What does Green Living look like?

In the Northern New Mexico area there are several levels of “Green” that many people move in and out of either with intention of Green or of pure simple survival.  From Tom Warrel’s “Green” Hotel and Ranch to the mesa dweller who works for the most simple survival. People work on different levels and with different intentions..  This is a sketch of some of those possibilities.

Extreme Green—a person may exhibiting these qualities she may not have electricity, if they do it defiantly comes from solar or wind power though some will refrain from solar as the production of the panels are somewhat hazardous to the environment.  These people live truly true and somewhat outside of the mainstream.  Many of them will ride bikes or horses even in the dead of winter.  Daniel Hutchinson, from Sangre de Cristo Youth Ranch, wound up with an 18 inch long icicle hanging from his baklava after pedaling 10 miles to the northern territories of El Rito one January.  Other tell tale signs of Extreme Green are no flushing toilets, refusal to ever use plastic, gathering clothing from the free table or free box to insure that you recycle what is still good.  A woman in Lama took old clothes that were close to rags, she dipped them in cement rolled them up and made bricks that she built her outhouse with.  No petroleum, and the Amish have it right.  These people grow much of their own food or find ways to trade for it.  Many people within this classification work to live as simply as possible, in search of sustainable survival as opposed to how to be more green.  Earth ship dwellers ftt into this category as do people that continually work to improve building in an energy efficient sustainable manner—with rocks, straw bails, cob or pumic-creet. 

Meanie Greenie—those who live with all solar or wind, they live off the grid using a generator to complete high voltage projects.  These people may have a composting toilet or out house but they also may have finally caved for a flush toilet.  Some characteristics are that they experiment with lessening the use of petroleum going to hydrogen or hybrids, this only because they are still tied to the modern world through jobs forcing them to continually drive long distances and thus partially rewriting their carbon footprints.   These people either buy or work for a share on a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture Farm).   This Category also insures that all investments are environmentally and socially conscious (as two go hand in hand).

Green—Many people continue to have one foot in the “Going Green” category.  They continue to work to use non-toxic cleaning supplies such as vinegar and ammonia or the pricy green products. They have bought into Kit Carson Electric Coops wind energy and add to the grid with their own solar panels.  They have begun to change their lifestyles, the largest and most daring step that a person can take.  They make their decisions based on a simpler and more sustainable lifestyle.

Living green isn’t a competition. None of these categories should be ranked higher or lower than another.  When people say green they mean Sustainable.  Sustainability means that we survive.  One rarely survives alone, it takes a community to support and maintain positive and progressive ideas and a movement toward a more sustainable future.  Where do you fit in?