Tiny Choices Survey: Marisa!
By tinychoices | October 30, 2009
Vital statistics (name, age, location)?
Marisa, 33, New York, NY
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)? Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
Last year, my husband and I moved to a loft-like apartment in a building that used to be a parking garage downtown Manhattan because he has knee problems and needed an elevator, and I work from home, and we wanted space. We’ve discovered that it’s actually more space than we need…and requires more energy than we need. So, our next apartment will be smaller and hopefully in a neighborhood with more trees. In the meantime, our kitties are enjoying galloping up and down the apartment.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)? Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
I mostly walk or take the subway. I’ve tried biking but have been plagued with mechanical problems, bike theft, and an increasing fear of bike messengers who ride the wrong way on bike lanes. Since David’s knees went kablooey, my understanding around eco-friendly living and disability has changed. NYC is an ambulatory city, and it can be a real challenge for people who can’t walk everywhere. David missed being outside experiencing the city, so he bought a Vespa, and I ride with him sometimes. It’s nice that it uses much less energy than cabs and costs less than five bucks to fill the tank every few weeks.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
I love collecting my plant scraps for compost. I think it’s the German in me; Germans are obsessed with “Muelltrennung” (separating waste). My grandmother had a separate container for “Bio” waste and a compost pile in her backyard. I don’t really want to keep worm bins in our apartment, so I put my compostable material in tupperware containers in the freezer and schlep them to the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturdays, where Ingrid, the lovely Dutch woman who works for the Lower East Side Ecology Center, collects them for compost. Plus, it gives me an excuse to walk past my two favorite thrift stores on the way home.
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
Travel-no question. I’m a total travel junkie-a culture vulture, a touring tart, a jet fuel-guzzling Jezebel. The more remote and exotic the location, the better. Two of my favorite vacations involved being mock-charged by a silverback gorilla and being locked up in a cage with a groggy cheetah who was recovering from surgery. (Cheetahs are not as soft as they look-just FYI.)
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
I can take less frequent but longer vacations with fewer mini-destinations in-between.
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?
Definitely the vegan thing. Vegans don’t even have to bring it up. All you have to do is eat with people, and someone will want to talk about it.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
I’d like everyone to adopt a more plant-based diet. The science on the devastating environmental impacts of animal agriculture is getting stronger and stronger every year. Just this week, a report called “Livestock and Climate Change” by the WorldWatch Institute came out saying that when you factor in previously overlooked contributors of greenhouse gas emissions in the livestock industry such as cow respiration (methane!) and the energy-intensive fishing industry, animal agriculture accounts for a startling 51% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. More leaders in the environmental movement and in the media are declaring the need for us to adopt a more plant-based diet. I try to help folks move in this direction through Kind Green Planet’s free online email coaching program called Vegan at Heart, which is directed towards people who consider themselves vegans at heart but not necessarily in practice. It empowers people with practical tips and resources (and no preaching involved!) But if you’re looking to be persuaded, feel free to check out the preliminary trailer for the vegan documentary we’re working on, Glass Walls.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
I feel that you really do have the choice of looking at them either as sacrifices or as life-affirming gifts that protect the planet and its inhabitants. As much as I can, I try to perceive them as the latter. It makes me feel like a superhero.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
It depends on the day, on what I’ve just read, what I’ve just seen. When I’m in my bubble of eco-conscious friends, I feel like things are just getting better and better. But when I leave my bubble, it can be pretty crushing. I think more people generally care about the environment, and it’s definitely more present in the media than ever before, but I haven’t seen much proof that it’s translating into real change. Not that there isn’t proof; it would just be nice to see it sometimes. Can I just say that I’m optimistically neutral?
Editor’s Note: Jenn has mentioned Marisa’s project “Kind Green Planet” twice before on TC: here and here.
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2 Comments
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I love Ingrid! She so happily accepts my frozen food scraps for composting, it makes me feel even more love for the LESEC!
Also, I hear ya on the globetrotting adventurer issue… not quite sure what to do about that one, seeing as how I’m dating someone who lives on another continent. Kind of a funny situation for an environmentalista to find herself in :)
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