Green for Green

This morning, as I put my darks in the dryer instead of hanging them on the line, I realized that I'm not really that green. If you were to describe me as a woman living in Seattle who drives a hybrid car and has a clothes line, you might assume that I'm also very green.

I have a secret. It's not a very green secret. I believe in saving the environment because I think it's good for my pocketbook. And on a grander scale, I think it's good for the economy. I like having a clothes line because it's too hot to run the dryer in the summer. I drive a hybrid because I was wasting a lot of gas on my commute, which was costing me a lot of money. I think we should decrease our dependence on foreign oil because that's what has driven the price of gas so high in the first place. I think we should look to renewable resources for things like transportation, because the oil will sometime be gone. I'm just a realist.

When I traveled in Europe while I was in college, I saw the mountains that had been desecrated by acid rain. The beauty of the black forest in Southern Germany was really ruined in places as a result of that rain caused by pollution. I love the natural beauty of the earth and want it to be beautiful for future generations. I'm not a tree-hugger. I just don't want to live in an area where the mountain looks like a forrest fire went through, but it will never regenerate because of acid rain. Honestly, my reaction to that was shock. I had heard about acid rain, but we don't have it in the Western US (more a result of how the winds blow, rather than being so much less polluted), so I had no idea how bad the situation was.

In the end, I think we should all care about saving money and having a beautiful earth to live on. I'm not making a political statement about being green. I'm keeping my house cool, saving money, and enjoying the outdoors.

And it's kind of nice if it has a positive effect on the world, too.