Blog Action Day

I don't consider myself a "real" blogger - as in, someone whose blog is read by other bloggers and someone who wants their blog read by other bloggers. I don't go to conferences or comment on anyone else's blog besides a couple of other mommies that I know personally. I don't advertise this blog to anyone who doesn't know Eliza. But I do read lots of other blogs, mainly about parenting, and learned that today is Blog Action Day.

It is defined thusly:

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

So, okay - I can blog about the environment today. It's something that has always mattered to me in that vague, crunchy, yay it's Earth Day kind of way. But since having Eliza, it suddenly matters so much more. That whole thing about not inheriting the earth from your parents, but borrowing it from your children actually means something to me now. I fear for what kind of world we are leaving her. Was it selfish to even bring her into it? I worry.

And I know we're not as "green" as we could be. I try in small ways, most of which drive Mac up the wall. I turn off lights now. I have taken the pledge to not drink bottled water for a year (!) and only use my Brita filter and Nalgene bottle (scroll down to the bottom of the blog and you can take it too!). We've replaced as many bulbs as we can with compact fluorescents (although haven't moved onto our dreaded flood/recessed lighting). Our neighborhood now has blue bins and I recycle just about everything. I bring plastic bags back to the grocery store where they have recycling for them and try to bring my canvas bags with me as much as possible. Sometimes I forget and then I'm annoyed with myself. We're slowly transitioning all our cleaning products over to Seventh Generation or something comparable.

Like I said, we try. But we have an SUV, for as much as we try to pretend our beloved CRV, Clark, is anything but. We use disposable diapers for Eliza - again, I do a little bit of green living by at least flushing the solid waste before I throw out the used diaper and I know that there is equal issue with the cloth ones as far as environmental impact (let's face it, babies are hard on the environment!), but there is still that guilt. We leave too many appliances on all the time, which apparently are energy vampires, consuming resources even when not actively in use.

I'd like to think our little actions help, that each drop in the ocean will swell the tide. But I also know that bigger changes need to come from bigger sources, like corporate America and our own government. So should I become more of an activist? Or am I just trendy green with my Nalgene bottle and self-righteousness? Probably the latter.

I'm not sure what I accomplished with this post, but at least I did my little bit to be part of Blog Action Day!

And now here's our girl last week enjoying her leftover birthday cake. Let's leave her a nice place to live, okay?