Tiny Choices Survey: Mike L.!
By tinychoices | February 19, 2010
Vital statistics (name, age, location)?
Mike Lieberman, 30, New York City
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)? Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
I live in an apartment building in the East Village neighborhood of the City with a roommate. When I moved back to NYC a few years ago, I wanted to live in the City. If I was moving back, I wanted to do it right. Since the prices for living space are so high, I chose to seek a place with a roommate to cut down on costs. So far it’s worked out nicely.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)? Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
One of the best things about moving back to NYC was that I was able to get rid of my car. Most of my travel within the City is done by walking. The rest of it is done by the best public transportation system in the world. People love to complain about it and say that it’s crap, but I am in total awe and fascinated by it. It’s a whole underground world that can take you nearly anywhere in the five boroughs. This decision is partial choice and necessity. Having a car in the City would be ridiculously expensive, so I just walk everywhere out of necessity.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
One tiny choice that I made in the past year is that I chose to start urban gardening and growing my own organic vegetables on my fire escape. I believe that food is one of the most important part of our lives, yet we put the responsibility on others to provide it for us. We’ve become so out of touch with our food source and put priorities on other things. I wanted to shift that priority back to my food and grow my own. The first season was a great learning experience. It’s definitely something that I am going to continue doing.
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
One that I’ve been struggling with lately is limiting my consumption of plastic. It’s damned near everywhere in our lives from food to toy packaging. The thing that gets me about it is that once you tear it off, it just gets tossed and landfilled. There are little second uses for it.
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
I’ve been bringing my own containers and bags with me to buy items in bulk. I’ve also been choosing to buy loose produce as opposed to the produce in the plastic wrapping.
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?
Hands down it’s the way that I eat. I consume mostly fresh fruits and vegetables. Some people hate on that hard. I started to do it for health reasons, but now for environmental reasons as well. Personally I don’t preach my eating habits to people, but they find the need to preach to me.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
I would like people to be more aware of the food choices that they are making. I don’t believe that everyone should eat solely a plant based diet. What I do believe is that if you are going to eat meat that it should be pasture raised meat. The meat that is sold in stores is all jacked up hormones, fed an unnatural diet and treated horribly. I believe that it’s bad for the environment and also bad for the individual consuming the food. In my opinion by educating ourselves on the food that we eat, it’ll be best for us and for the environment.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
I don’t think that you have to make sacrifices for environmentalism. I want to show people that there are simple ways to go green that can be done on a daily basis without disrupting your normal life.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
I am optimistic about it. I think that a lot of people are starting to awaken to the corporate and government BS that is being pushed on us. It seems like people are starting to question things more and not just follow the leader. I’m a firm believer in that we vote with our dollar. The only way that things are going to change is if we stop supporting the large corporations that are helping to cause a lot of the damage. I’m optimistic that can happen.
Mike Lieberman resides in NYC. He is someone who walks their talk as a living, breathing demonstration of how sustainable living is possible anywhere. Lieberman shows others how they can do the same on his own blogs and writes for others around the web. You can find him at CanarsieBK.com.
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Topics: Surveys | 1 Comment »
Mike, I’m going to read more about your self-watering fire escape garden… sounds like such a great plan! I’m determined to successfully grow some of my own edibles this year… though my Brooklyn squirrels are notorious thieves.