The Middle Class Family

Happy day-after-Christmas!

Today’s post is coming to you live from just outside Detroit, Michigan. Which, could clear up any confusion as to why this California-girl blogger is posting pictures of winter wonderlands. Oh, P.S., it was two degrees here the other night. Thank goodness for wool coats.

Which leads me to today’s topic- environmental consciousness outside of the Golden State. Here in Tiger’s territory, the land is flat as a pancake, with the exception of a few grass-covered hills. How did these hills come to be? Well, they’re actually garbage heaps masquerading as ski runs and sled hills. Many of them are used to provide methane gas to supply power to the grid, but driving along the highway, it seems they are an ever-present reminder of wastefulness. National Geographic has several articles about this process and even has an infographic in the January 2014 edition of the magazine.

The most interesting part of all this is that even though there are glaring reminders of the permanence of wastefulness, there is still a deplorable lack of willingness to help a solution here!

To be fair, I’m staying with extended family, and so I haven’t been able to survey everyone in the area. However, there is no composting happening here, and the only recyclables seem to be bottled water. Everything else seems to be tossed. As I’m typing this, I was just in a conversation with someone who wants to get a K-Cup filler with disposable paper filters so that coffee grounds can be disposed of more readily. The concept of composting wasn’t even considered.

Perhaps I’m more of a California hippy than I previously understood, but it sure seems that outside of our major metropolis areas our nation has a good deal of work to do in order to move closer to sustainable living.

The day after Christmas- a holiday truly exploited by consumerism- seems to be a fitting time to reflect on this and begin to make changes. Not just for our individual health, but for the betterment of humanity as a whole.

Happy Holidays to You and Yours!

HB

My Dear Readers, You have no idea how thrilled I am to say that I’m BACK to writing on a regular basis! It’s been a very long ten weeks, but the good news is that my undergraduate work in Communication has been finished, and any day an email will come through letting me know that […]