
"Verde que te quiero verde.""Green, I want you green," wrote Federico Garcia Lorca, possibly the most noted Spanish poet, in his poem
Romance Somnambulo .
I want things green too. So all last week I celebrated Earth Day here in my little house on the Argentine pampa in thought, photo, and deed. The most deeply gratifying thought is that my ecological footprint has shrunk from a size 12 EEE to something like a 7B. As it wasn't all voluntary, so I'm not asking for a pat on the back.
First of all, even with a less visible environmental movement, it is easier to live greener here, more due to necessity and custom than any kind of eco-consciousness. So here's how I've become greener since moving here:
1. I drive less. In fact, I don't drive much at all. I average less than 40 kilometers per week—and that is in a 17-year-old Ford Galaxy powered by compressed natural gas. I do average about two trips a year back to the US—so that eats up any credits I might have earned, I suppose.
2. I hang clothes out to dry—a rather pleasant task beneath the towering magnolia and jacaranda trees. Roberto was insistent that I not buy a dryer, and almost no one I know has one anyway. The sun does a pretty decent job, and I've learned to hang the brighter colored garments in the shade. (You can see the "sun line" on a number of my T-shirts!) In inclement weather, we drape damp clothes over the loft balcony, over doors, on dresser drawer knobs, etc. I wash dishes by hand, but I've read that is not an energy savings. Then again, we don't have to throw one out when it breaks down or just gets out of fashion.
3. My consumer days are over. Here there is less to tempt—and I've discovered that I don't need much that isn't here. (Except great semi-sweet chocolate!) There's no pressure to buy the latest anything, and we have very few gadgets around the house besides a refrigerator, stove, microwave oven, mixer, food processor, and a small vacuum. We have a 15-year old stereo and a sadly ordinary TV for watching videos as we chose not to have any TV service. The average age of our PCs is 6 years, which is a little dismaying actually. Our big thrill is the antenna which allows us to get broadband.
4. The packageless, nearly paperless home. Since I buy less, there's less packaging. Besides, very little comes in those cardboard and bullet-proof plastic packages here. I didn't even get one of those great cartons when I bought a refrigerator—it came with a thin plastic film on the door and a blanket around it. We use maybe one tin can a week and reuse any jars to store food and spices. We get very little mail and almost zip junk mail—no catalogues, no charity requests, etc. Just an occasional copy of the Jehovah Witness pamphlet, Awake! Our notepads are recycled paper--I cut the pages up myself!
5. Slow Food, Local Food. Most of our food is locally produced foods and we grow our own berries. My new German expat friend, Britta, stops by with a crate of organic veggies (see photo) from her farm about two kilometers away. Those crispy gorgeous greens, along with domestic cereal grains and other produce, have become a mainstay of our diet. The butcher cuts up the meat while I wait and puts it all in a plastic bag.
6. The Minimalist Trash Can. We throw out a couple small bags of trash three times a week—it's so little it fits in a driveway-side basket like the one pictured. We use things up, reuse things, recycle things right at home. You never see piles of junk on curbsides (unless it is someone's parked jalopy!). Folks here use cheap toilet paper and reuse containers for economy's sake. . . and I do it for that and to lessen waste.
7. Our Energy Savings. Except during mid-winter, the weather is very hospitable, often absolutely delightful. So our small chalet-style home lacks central heating, though I confess I put an A/C in my loft office for use on the sweaty days. Mostly we rely on fans or just the breezes, doors wide open, especially since electricity costs more here. Since our small gas wall heater only puts out a few BTUS in this poorly insulated house, during the winter I stuff old newspapers in the window cracks and live in my polar fleece jacket, even to bed at times. Amazing what you can get used to! We've learned to take two-minute showers since our hot-water heater is quite small.
8. Simple Pleasures. Entertainment for us and our neighbors and friends usually involves socializing over meals, walking or biking, reading or playing board games, a dip in the pool. We fill the pool with water from our own pump, and it leaks back into the same ground, and then we fill it up again. Our vacations are generally a day's drive to the ocean or mountains for a respite, where our activities are all non-motorized.
Most of the middle and working class folks that I know here live fairly simply, enjoying their family and friends, and never give much thought to their environmental impact, as low as I perceive it to be here on the family level. Of course the farming and crops have taken their toll on the pampa, and deforestation and water pollution are common. So there is definitely room here for more awareness and more action. I hope to be a part of that too.
May all your days be green!