Aside from the thrill of seeing Benjamim, I must admit I've been feeling a mounting sadness as Rome heats up in early Spring. I'm trying my best not to be alarmist and maybe I'm simply in the wrong line of work. All the same, bad news just keeps popping up. A journalist from
Mother Jones interviewed the
Gold Standard and sent a complimentary copy of Mother Jones magazine as a thank you (some of you know that I don't buy magazines). The cover slogan reads, "In 93 Years, half of all life on Earth will be extinct." If you want to read the Gold Standard offset piece, as well as that uplifting article on how a person dying from dehydration mirrors, in some ways, the way a species goes extinct, I can email you a scanned copy. It's not online yet.
All the same, I know the risks of being consumed by negativity, so I watch the Benjamim video on repeat (such good music, such a cutie patooty baby) and read Colin Beaven's blog,
No Impact Man. His post over the weekend, "On Not Getting Down" really moved me, and I wrote a comment which you can see if you scroll way down to the bottom.
I wish that we were all in the cool dark reading room in London to mull over an adequate response to rising temperatures and declining biodiversity. In the absence of room S21, I'll settle for thinking out loud here.
Colin Beavan writes that the unexpected benefit of his No Impact Man experiment is a sort of renewed faith in people and and our destiny. Sounds good, but -- honestly -- very far away. Working for Gold Standard involves a lot of travel and exposes me to a lot of business bottom lines. I feel grateful to have purpose-driven work but the nature of the job involves a great deal of activism, anger, politics, negotiation. The defender, critic, and fighter in me is getting a lot of air time. My friend was telling me that in order to really be effective as an environmentalist, a serene, connected voice need also be present. I think this is the voice Dena wanted to identify in all of us, "Why are you an environmentalist in the first place?" Beyond my disgust at current air quality, the withering Tiber, and Roman traffic jams, I do realize that what really drives me isn't negative at all. Instead, I'm happier when I buy local foods at the farmers market, the best times of my life have occurred in the mountains with a sleeping bag, and I maintain there is no stress therapy more effective than cuddling a different species, preferably a labrodor puppy or (a girl can dream) a baby panda! And yes, I know, it is wrong to confuse cuddling charismatic megafauna with environmental stewardship, but I do like baby pandas and baby anythings.
It's time for my personal habits to reflect again the energizing aspects of being environmentaly concerned. I'm going to do a little no impact experiment myself, nothing so ambitious or admirable as Colin's project but maybe it will cheer me up. For now, I commit to buying nothing new for a year (excluding medicines, toiletries, aquarium supplies, and food stuffs). I also commit to spending as much time as possible outdoors.
I'll let you know if the commitments grow, and how they do. I really do miss all of you, our scattered eco-tribe.
Jasmine.
TreeHugger loves Green Drinks, and we are excited to report that Beijing loves them, too! The first ever Beijing Green Drinks, held last month, was a resounding success. More than 100 people showed up to rock the Stone Boat Bar with green-tinted talk, including people from government (China's State Environmental Protection Administration was represented), from NGOs, and from the private sector. Organizer Jenny Chu is looking to turn Beijing Green Drinks into a regular monthly event, and the second one will again be held on the second Tuesday of the month. So if you're living in Beijing - or if you can make it here for the [social] good time this promises to be - come out to the Stone Boat Bar for round two: Tuesday, May 8th, 7-9 pm. 
