Tiny Choices Survey: Bridget!
By tinychoices | August 22, 2008
Vital statistics (name, age, location, link to website/blog)?
Bridget, 32, Madison WI, http://www.brdgt.livejournal.
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)?
I live in a 1,000 square foot apartment on the second floor of a house built in 1910 with one roommate and three cats. I have a wonderful landlord who has provided us with a clothesline, compost bin, a garden plot, and replaces our light bulbs with CFLs whenever we need them.
Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
Both. I need to live close enough to campus for school and I don’t have a car so I have to live in a mixed use neighborhood. I would choose to live in this type of neighborhood anyway, however – it’s walkable, green, and where a lot of my friends live.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)?Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
I don’t own a car so I bike, bus, walk, and have a Community Car (http://www.communitycar.com/) membership. I average about 50 miles a week on my bike, have a bus pass through school, and there are three Community Cars right in my neighborhood! I’m really lucky to live in a city with such great transportation options, so even though I could buy a car I don’t see the need to.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
Even though I don’t believe in technological fixes in general, I’ve discovered ways to use existing technology to save resources. For example, I use the scanner feature on library copiers to email myself PDFs of articles that I need instead of making paper copies. Instead of burning CDs for friends I upload mixes to a website and send them the link to download them – most people are just uploading them to their IPod anyway! Tiny choices like these save money, resources, and work around existing limitations.
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
Being a vegetarian. I know that I should be but I still haven’t been able to commit to it and I’m not sure if I ever will be able to.
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
I know a lot of people who keep a vegetarian home but will eat meat out – I’m trying to do the opposite and always order vegetarian out and then try to make as many vegetarian dishes at home as I can. Luckily, I live in a very vegetarian friendly city and the vegetarian options are great!
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?
Although not having a car anymore wasn’t initially a choice, I now love it and have no plans to buy a car. Many people don’t get how I can get around without a car and think my life is limited now. It takes me longer to do some things but overall it’s such a better experience than always driving all the way out to the box stores for something I can get around the corner. Being forced to find things locally has made me realize how much there is right around me.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
I still run into people who don’t recycle! To me that is just absurd – it’s good for the environment and you don’t have to empty the trash as often. My landlord in Boston didn’t offer recycling and she wondered why the building had rodents – all that food left in cans in the trash bins in the basement probably didn’t help!
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
No. I think that framing environmentalism as a sacrifice is a trap that scares people away from environmental choices. It’s never as simple as “jobs or the environment” (how about “jobs for the environment!”). Every environmental choice that I have made that may be framed as a sacrifice has provided benefits far greater than anything I gave up. Not having a car means I can’t drive out to Walgreen’s for my watch battery, but right around the corner is a clock shop where my neighbor will replace my battery for me for less – you can’t beat that! I interact with more people and support local businesses by not having a car – these are positive things that outweigh any inconvenience that not having a car represents.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
Optimistic. I think we have turned a corner in awareness so that even skeptics are erring on the side of caution. There is still a long way to go but there are a lot of bright, energetic, and creative people out there working on solutions. I think environmentalism has become profitable and this will fuel development, but I also hope that environmental justice continues to be supported throughout this process.
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