Tiny Choices Survey: Frank Gibson
By tinychoices | February 1, 2008
Vital statistics (name, age, location, link to website/blog)?
Frank Gibson, 30, Monteagle, TN, The Daily Blog of the Day
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)?
In a pretty large 100-year-old “Fixer-upper” with my wife and three (rescued and neutered) cats. (The two dogs live in the detached garage.)
Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
Choice. My wife’s job brought us out to the far reaches of Rural Tennessee, but the house was an economic choice, mostly.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)?Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
Even the biggest cities in Tennessee have practically nothing in the way of Mass Transit, and out here, in the country, life without a car is not even a remote possibility. My wife and I shared a single car for years, but the multiple trips back and forth, to pick one another up and drop one another off, were time, energy, and money wasters. I bought a Honda Motorscooter in November of 2006, which gets between 80 - 85 MPG. (at a top speed of about 49 MPH, it should be added.)
That choice was theoretically a money saver as well as an environment saver, except that I wrecked it in March of ‘07, shattering my left elbow and incurring thousands of dollars in medical expenses. But I am back in the saddle now, and lowering my carbon footprint at risk of life and limb.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
Oh, so many… Composting, which led to organic gardening, which led to Vermiculture/Vermicomposting. Compost bins should have warning labels! It is definitely a “gateway” activity. I just wanted to avoid throwing my potato peels in the landfill, and, next thing I know, I am gleefully watching worms making babies in my laundry room, and waiting hopefully to collect their poop!
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
Probably food. I love growing vegetables, yet I don’t like to eat them. Most of my favorite things to eat are processed out of pre-processed ingredients, re-processed, wrapped in mylar and then shipped 1800 miles on a diesel truck. But they are so darn yummy and convenient! I also know that there is pretty much no way I could ever give up eating meat.
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
I really have a lot of room for experimentation in my diet, for both my personal health, and that of Mother Earth. I need to look harder for recipes that use fresh veggies in ways that make me more likely to eat them (rather than just return them to the compost from whence they came!)
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you make that people question (in either a positive educational or a negative hassle way) you the most about?
The aspect of my life most visible to others is my geeky little Motorscooter. Living in the land of Massive Pickup Trucks, people give me a lot of grief. “How fast does it go?” is the question I hate to get asked, because it is almost always followed by “Why don’t you just get a Motorcycle?” with high praise for some fume spewing V-12 engine monstrosity occasionally following.
Oddly enough, having a worm farm in my house goes mostly unquestioned, because folks around here just assume I am raising them for fishing bait.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
Honestly, I would like everybody to simply start thinking! Thinking about their purchases, their employment, their transport, their food, their government, and the Big Picture. We can’t all be experts on climate change, or agribusiness, or civic engineering, but we can all do the things that we know for sure will help, starting on a household scale.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
No, I don’t, but I should. I am currently only doing things I enjoy, and things which usually have a dual purpose, saving the earth and saving money. If I start making choices that I don’t like, or that actually cost me money, then I will know that I am seriously an Earth Warrior on a Mission.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
Mostly pessimistic, depending on the definition of pessimism. I suppose I look at human consumer excess as a disease which will require some painful (possibly very painful) “surgery”. Nobody wants to need surgery, but I am optimistic in that I think that humanity will be able to recover afterward, and be better for it. I am fairly sure that the “surgery” will occur during my lifetime, and I figure I have a 50/50 chance of being alive to see the other side of it. Just like with a real disease, chances of beating it are dramatically improved with early detection.
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Topics: Surveys |
Frank, I love that photo!
my thoughts exactly!
You know, your commentary is always refreshing to read!
we lived in Maryville, Morristown and Oak Ridge TN, so i know your pain!!! keep up the good work, and maybe you will start people thinking
Thanks for the Photo “props”, people! That pic is more or less my “Official” Web avatar. That particular shot was taken my my brother, on a cloudy day on top of Mt. Soledad(?) in San Diego.
I call it my “Longhaired Prophet” pose, which kinda sounds appropriate now that I re-read my slightly “too-scary” answer to the final question.
Shameless plug: If you click on my “donate” button over on my blog,and make a I will send you an autographed copy of that picture. No takers so far, but hey… A guy can dream, can’t he?
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