Saturday, January 01, 2005

The Manifesto

Welcome to the Small Environmentalist.

This blog is going to track my attempts to become a better environmentalist.

At the moment I recycle my bottles and newspapers; I have some energy saving lightbulbs; occasionally I buy organic produce; and, when I remember, I look for FSC approved timber.

I have a few excuses for why I don’t do more and this blog is an attempt to address them.

First excuse: I don’t have the time.

Second excuse: it’s all too expensive.

Third excuse (and the real driver): it’s all too depressing, I wouldn’t know where to begin. What difference can one person make anyway?

I think that there are probably other people like me out there. Too busy and confused or too attached to elements of our lifestyle that we’re unwilling to sacrifice.

I have recently been thinking that the excuses are not good enough and that if someone like me doesn’t do anything to make things better then things will continue to get worse.

I’m going to start gathering information so that I can make better choices. I’m going to set myself goals within timeframes! I need lists and graphs that will show me exactly how I’ve contributed and that will encourage me to do more. So:

Every week I will make one change in my life that will minimise my impact on the Earth. At the end of a year I will have made 52 changes to my lifestyle. The big issues will have been broken into small steps.

The small environmentalist can leave a large legacy

I need grand phrases like that.

To get to the mechanics of this blog, every week I will have a new entry of the change I have made and maybe some further information. I will promise to make the entries straight-forward and relatively short - I have to accept my essential laziness and short attention span.

I hope that the people who do find this blog might do this along with me – if only to encourage me to keep it going.

The blog is aimed at people who mean to read the articles and the green books; who don't always know what it is they're doing wrong but who would like to have it simply pointed out to them how they could make a change; who would like to feel that they’re making a real difference and are part of a community all doing the same.

1 comment:

Jay said...

Hi smallenvironmentalist, I stumbled onto your page, read through it, and wondered why you're no longer posting. (Part of my research into environmentally aware bloggers/sites, etc.)

Here's a page I've been working on that is related:

http://whirledhomejournal.blogspot.com/

Enjoy life...And if there's anything you'd like to contribute, such as a post about your blog's current fallow state, motivations, realizations, etc. please let me know. It would be great to include something from you.