How do you adapt??

I’ll never forget that feeling, that sense of abrupt arrival, feeling like a stranger touching down into an alien world, or as certain secular interests might profess, a ‘civilized’ society. After returning home from both India and Guatemala (separate trips, disconnected entities), every move I made at first seemed like that from a slow-motion movie where my senses were on full alert, as if I had lost a sensory faculty in my travels and had suddenly regained it. I was immensely appreciative yet caught in a bitter dichotomy, guiltily awed by the excess and abundance and wealth of our lives, as we know it. Water flows so freely, consumption of our ‘natural’ resources is not given a second thought in our world, where excess is the tangible ‘right’ of every citizen that has access. Waste beyond comprehension is a standard of living in our rich full lives … the words “water conservation and energy efficiency”, at the time, belonged only in the debates of the politicians versus the David Suzuki‘s of our world.

Slowly but surely, the environmental concerns which were once a myth are now bearing fruit, affecting every single continent on that which we live …. slowly, slowly. But not really. The change will be cataclysmic … no one will remain unscathed. The status symbol of civilized vs. third world now holds no boundaries limited to one country, per se. Our world is renegotiating the rules … where we have grown comfortable / adept at controlling with our power and money (same thing, right?), now is emerging a new truth in the reality of Global Warming (thank the stars for the likes of the Al Gores (politician, no?) of our world, bringing light to the critical crises at hand), slowly emerging are the abrupt and unsavoury consequences of our prolific actions.
Quite overwhelming, really.

So, okay, breath. Breath in the here and now, in the “I too can make a difference”.
It all starts with one. But where to start? The moment is here. {To be honest, it’s actually already past … shoulda, woulda, coulda}.

Here’s an environmental tip of the week …

Save Water with Powder Detergents
With severe to extreme drought conditions affecting parts of the U.S. and Australia, as well as elsewhere, we’ve got to start thinking about our water footprint, not just our carbon footprint. There are numerous ways to save water, but here’s one simple way that might not have occurred to you: Switch from liquid detergents to powders. Laundry liquids are mostly water (up to 80 percent), with upcoming double and triple compact concentrates at best cutting that amount in half. It costs energy and packaging to bring this water to the consumer. So save three ways by using powder detergents to wash clothes. The same holds for dishwashing detergents, when there’s a choice, choose dry powders.