Tiny Choices Survey: Marissa!
By tinychoices | July 18, 2008
Vital statistics (name, age, location, link to website/blog)?How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)?
Marissa, 29, Boise, ID, www.returnofidealism.blogspot.com. I live in a 3 bedroom house with my husband and 2 (soon to be 3) kids.
Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
A little of both. We could certainly cram ourselves into a 2 bedroom apartment but it’s nice to have a little room to spread out. It allows us to stay at home more often which means we drive and consume less. Besides, our house is pretty efficient.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)?Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
I travel by car out of necessity. Public transportation isn’t really an option here (although when we lived in Portland, OR we took advantage of the public transportation as much as possible) and the roads of Boise aren’t exactly safe for biking (my first choice) with kids.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
We enjoy vacationing but it can be done in a manner that limits the effects on the environment. We stay in a tent wherever we go, cook our own food, eat local and stay away from the tourist destinations that promote consumption. We have a much better time and find it more relaxing.
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
We desire a large family and we know that our choice isn’t exactly environmentally friendly.
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
We choose to lesson our impact by breastfeeding, using cloth diapers, etc. so that having a large family doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll impact our environment negatively.
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?
Using a reusable shopping bag. For some reason the checkers at one of the stores I shop at find this to be extremely annoying. I’m one of “those” people.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
Using reusable shopping bags. It’s a small way to make a big difference.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
No! I love it! Living simply makes life mean so much more.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
I’m generally optimistic. I grew up with parents that promoted environmentalism and they were considered freaks. It’s encouraging that they are no longer considered freaks and their lifestyle is considered more mainstream. Much has changed in my lifetime and that’s a very, very good thing!
Topics: Surveys |
The bag thing is funny. People are kind of used to it in LA, but the other night I discovered that the bag boys assume that if you bring your own bags, you want to load them yourself! He took one look at my bags and walked off to another cashier station. On the plus side, I’m getting pretty good at bagging groceries.
People at the health food grocery here do that same thing- if you bring your own bag, you are left to load it up yourself.
Perhaps these people need to do some more math. Having a large family and trying to make up for it by breastfeeding, cloth diapers, and paper bags doesn’t make sense.
Look at all the stuff children will consume before they grow up (food, travel, clothes, toys etc). Consider the rate of consumption for one kid vs four. Sure you can cut back but not by that much! Yes kids are fun but please think about the long term impacts!
Eva, thanks for your comments, but please note that this is the environmental issue that Marissa most struggles with. Also if you’ll take a look at her blog (linked above) you’ll see that she’s made a lot of thoughtful environmental choices, probably most significantly expanding her family by adoption.
I love reading about people’s Tiny Choices. It’s made me think more about something small I can begin with to do the right thing. I have one question. I use plastic bags from the supermarket. If I were to use my own bags, then what do I put my rubbish into to transfer it to my bin? Surely you don’t just throw raw messy rubbish straight into your garbage bin for collection?
Hi Jennifer! We posted about this in a Q&A here and followed up in a few places: here, here, and here,.