What the hell?

I was listening to NPR this morning, and they had a brief feature on walking as a form of transportation (as opposed to fitness or recreation). They interviewed this guy Colin, who, with the blessing of his long-suffering wife, has pledged to do everything in his power to get down to zero environmental impact over the course of a year (they're about 6 months through the year now, so they're not at zero yet). This involves a lot of wacky stuff like walking everywhere, composting inside their apartment, looking for alternatives to anything disposable (you don't want to know), and not using elevators (he definitely started the year more fit than I am, and he's better at getting up in the morning--I think I'd have to add an hour to my commute, and I'd also have to pack a lunch, because there'd be no way in hell I'd walk down to the cafe from my high-rise office). I thought he sounded interesting, so I looked him up on the internet.

I went to a liberal college that is basically living as though the summer of love never stopped. I know the "we hate granola liberals" drill. I know that you don't talk politics or environmentalism with anyone who owns a gun (I make an exception for my father--sometimes). I know that you keep your environmentalism under your hat unless you're willing to be sworn at, threatened, and vandalized. So I knew there were going to be people who wanted to hang him up by his thumbs, ask him to leave the country, or whatever. But no matter what my intellectual understanding is of the hatred, I'm always unprepared for how ruthlessly violent it is when it actually comes out (the piece from the NY Times is linked at the top, and you can scroll through the comments to see what I mean--and if you go to his blog, you'll see more, including the fact that people who comment on his blog also get death threats--charming). I also see that he has published photos of his family on his blog, which was the first thing about him that made me think he might actually be crazy. I hope he has an environmentally friendly bodyguard.

I don't understand why people want to banish or kill someone for doing something that's not going to inconvenience them AT ALL. He's not trying to push his choices on others--which evidently makes him "self-absorbed." If he did try to push it on others, then they'd be all upset about that, too. What mystifies me is why these people are so upset about what's going on inside his apartment? How does this inconvenience people who want to take elevators and drive SUVs? It doesn't. More space in the elevator if this dude is taking the stairs, right? And would they rather that he talked the talk without walking the walk? No, I'm pretty sure that pisses them off, too. Apparently everyone who's willing to bring their own bag to the grocery store is supposed to live in some hippie commune far away from civilization. Well, sorry. He pays taxes and he's entitled to live here.

Don't get me wrong. I lived with my cousin for a while after I got divorced, and some of the stuff she did in the name of environmentalism drove me nuts. (Like the compact fluorescent bathroom lights that took so long to warm up when you turned them on that by the time they generated any light I was leaving the bathroom--I think the entire environmental evangelism of this product is that it convinces you that you can do almost anything in the dark if you are desperate enough. Or the refusal to spray for bugs. Roaches may be God's creatures, but God, sadly, has no vested interest in keeping them out of my home. That's why He gave us Raid.) I have no desire to live like this guy is.

Which is a good thing because in most cities, I'd have died trying. If I still lived in Phoenix and decided to walk everywhere, I'd be unemployed or living in a cardboard box (and also dead of heat stroke). If I lived in Phoenix and decided to eat only local food, I'm not sure what I would be eating. I've seen chickens, cattle and cotton in the Phoenix area, but I wouldn't want to live on that (particularly since I've now been told that red meat and dairy are killing us all, because cattle are chock full of greenhouse gas and are a model of unsustainable farming--which pretty much leaves chicken a la cotton). Seriously, it's way easier to be eco-friendly here than almost any other urban area I've lived in.

So I'm aware that he's an extreme person, and that what he's doing isn't feasible for people who aren't extreme (and he's only halfway there--yikes!). But if (it's a big if) his book sells, it will prove that there is a market for environmental conscience-wiping, and then I pretty much think capitalism kicks in from there--do the hate mongers have any problem with capitalism? I didn't think so. Of course, zero-impact living probably means he wouldn't be able to buy the new odorless apartment composter, say, or whatever else might be thrown at this wackadoo market. But the beauty of capitalism is that if you don't want one, you don't have to buy it. More cash left over to garage your SUV in Manhattan.

I also think it's entirely possible that I can get through the next six months without thinking, reading, or caring about him. So why the hell can't these other people just ignore him and leave him be?