Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Those crazy environmentalist nut jobs

2008 Environmental Nutjob AwardSharon of Casaubon's Book and I have a joke going about who's the crazier of us two. She's more peak oil, cautionary, make changes now or else (and I say that in a good way) and I'm more change your habits because it'll be damn fun. Even though it probably won't be. For more information on the effect she has on others, see her post yesterday.

She suggested a poll and well, since I'm at the very least a crazy poll chicken, I can't help myself. This wouldn't be as fun without including some other environmental bloggin' nut jobs around, too. And this isn't a popularity contest - who do you think is the most out there?



If you haven't seen these other blogs, I encourage you to check them out:
Casaubon's Book
Little Blog in the Big Woods
No Impact Man
Green as a Thistle

Greenpa and I are the only ones not writing professionally about the environment (outside of our blogs which are, needless to say, not professional) so I'm not sure if we get extra points for that?

If you're a blogger and are not included, do not be offended. I wanted to include only those of us who are moderately tetched. If you are included and are offended, well, I do mean it in the best possible way.

20 comments:

just ducky said...

OK, I in no way want to skew the voting here...but Colin/No Impact Man's year of no impact is over and he's added some things back into his routine---Greenpa hasn't had a flushable toilet for years! We're talkin' outhouse like building here people! (And please don't be offended Greenpa...it's out of fear, twisted jealously and sheepish admiration that I point this out)

Anonymous said...

I voted for Greenpa b/c he seems to have the most extreme living environment. That said, I don't think his views and opinions are way out there. I like his common sense approach and his non-judgemental manner of encouraging change. That is something I also admire about Crunchy. She uses humor and common sense to gently nudge us in the "green" direction. I don't feel doomed and depressed when i read either of their posts. To be fair, I haven't read any of the other choices in the poll, so my vote is not a vote against any of them :0).

Shelly

katecontinued said...

On second thought, I should have voted Greenpa. Now there is a kind of dedication to (my personal goal) environmentalist nut jobbery!

I just wish he could be transcribing - via voice?- into his blog throughout his daily life.

Seeking information and learning this valuable 21st century 'how-to' from each of you - in different styles and voices - is an addiction. Who's the nutjob?

Anonymous said...

I am with ducky and shellyg8r that Greenpa is the most extreme, not necessarily in views but in execution. However, NIM and Greenpa aside I feel like in a lot of ways the most fervent environmentalists I know are women. In all the environmentally concerned couples I know it is the female who is more radical. Maybe we need another poll? Although since most of your readership are women maybe it would be biased....
Anyway, I don't think that any of you are crazy...in fact far from it...I think the mainstream consumerist culture is much more insane.
Keep up the good work.

ruchi said...

You know what Crunchy? I agree with shellyg8r. I actually think you're not nuts at all, and I'll tell you why. You manage to convince me that I should stop using toilet paper, or use a diva cup, but your sense of fun and your common sense attitude make it seem like doing that stuff is not insane at all ... it's just a fun adventure. And I really appreciate it. Like shellyg8r noted, I don't feel doomed and depressed when I read your posts. I just feel *excited* yes, *excited* to try a diva cup.

And not that we shouldn't be thinking about "depressing" issues, because of course we need to, but just in terms of who's craziest? I think maybe you just redefine crazy as cool. :)

Anonymous said...

OK, this poll made me laugh hysterically! I voted for Sharon, hands down -- and I greatly admire her, don't get me wrong. I am a member of the 90% reduction group, and I read everybody's blog that you mentioned daily -- cept Greenpa cause he's been offline for a while, but I always check...anyway, the 90% riot group never fails to knock me on my tuckus with their ideas! I'd never heard of peak oil until I ran into them, and it's been baptism by fire. Also, the group is far more interactive with lots of different divergent personalities, and those shine through pretty heavily. Sometimes it takes a bit to swallow some of the attitudes (and I mean that in a nice way) as I'm not as confrontational as some of the people on the list. I have no problem with confrontation, but some of the stuff gets mighty personal. It's like watching people argue in their livingroom! :)

Anyway, those eco warriors can get way out there. I admire them, enjoy them, laugh with them, and try not to piss them off! They've taught me so much (as everyone else on the list has) but sometimes they come out with both barrels blazing. Change ain't always easy, and their passion and commitment to their views is completely inspiring to me. I would have given up long ago on some of my ideas if I didn't have the little wee nagging conscious that is the Riot for Reduction Group.

Wendy said...

Not that I don't think you and Sharon enjoy a more "extreme" lifestyle than some of the rest of us, but really, Greenpa has a "three-holer" out in the woods. That's pretty radical in today's world ... a fact he readily admits ;).

Anyway, keep it all of you. You're an inspiration to those of us who are just learning to walk the walk.

Anonymous said...

I'm a member of the 90% Reduction group as well, and Sharon is definitely extreme.

And you with your cloth wipes and diva cups, well, you don't mind crossing that public/private line.

Vanessa and Colin - love them, and what they're doing is awesome. But they gave themselves time limits on their changes, so I agree with ducky.

Greenpa has been off the grid for 30 years, and just about every aspect of his lifestyle is heavily impacted by reducing. He wins.

But I will say that you are all inspiring - it's great to have the CO2-emitting internet so that we can all get together and inspire one another!

Anonymous said...

I am really getting a kick out of the community crossover here and the fun.

But, I am also glad several voices broached the obvious though rarely stated reality. Of course environmentalists are told they are whacky, extreme, radical yada yada yada. Billions of dollars are at stake for the powers that be. We are supposed to be too embarrassed or afraid of being strident. You know the message, just keep driving, eating junk food, shopping at WalMart and eating meat.

What other country on the planet makes environmental activists terrorists, but not the people bombing clinics?

This is why Riot for Austerity has such an appropriate ring to it - for me.

(Oh yes, I guess I am supposed to say IMHO, in my humble opinion, for those who have just started this journey. I myself would rather be nudged than shoved.)

Jeanne said...

I don't think any of you are crazy, either! Just forward thinking. :)

I have to say that it's so much fun to read all of these blogs and join in the discussions that these blogs inspire.

It's good stuff!

Anonymous said...

For some reason the poll is not coming through tonight. I'm getting a message about the server timing out. But that's okay. I just wanted to comment about environmentalism being fun. Because it is, it is! I'm having a blast. Besides the fact that I don't get enough sleep because I'm up all night on the web (which is not very green, as you already mentioned in a previous post and which I really need to cut down) this year has been the one of the most fun and rewarding of my life. The people who won't make green changes because they think it won't be any fun just need to meet some fun greenies and keep away from the doom and gloom types. That's what I think.

Oldnovice said...

I apologize for the length of this comment.

I didn't respond to the poll, but thought I should say SOMETHING, because I suspect Sharon's noticing traffic to her site from Debunking Peak Oil and that could be because I posted the URL to her site there.

I spent a lot of time between 1997 and 2000 participating at both a Y2k Debunker site AND TimeBomb 2000. A mainframe computer programmer at the time, I was working on remediation and the man I married last year was out of town on a contract doing remediation, as well. So, I had a lot of time on my hands after work and grew increasingly fascinated with the whole process of how fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) gets processed by innocent people and how they get swept up in the current of it all.

I got to know some of those people about as well as you can get to know people who are only a part of your life through an electronic
medium. Some were more level-headed than others, but the ones who APPEARED most level-headed were the people who suggested
that Y2k was going to be a 10 on a scale of 1-10. They wrote eloquently and convincingly. If you weren't prepared, they would say, you would die with the millions of pollyannas who didn't heed their warnings. The just-in-time inventory system of our grocery stores wouldn't be able to keep supplies coming for us to buy, we wouldn't be able to go to work, THE (sic) grid would be down, so there would be no power, TV, radio, lights, refrigeration, etc., gas stations would run out of fuel, and hungry people would all head for YOUR house to steal
your preps (very popular amongst the God, guns, and gold crowd). The majority of people were rural (like Sharon), telling urban
dwellers to get out of the city while they could ... get some land, grow a garden, raise your own meat, etc. because the folks left in the city once Y2k hit would be "drinking dog piss out of rusty hubcaps".

It was a fascinating couple of years. ANYONE who disagreed with the outcome of 10 on a scale of 1-10 was considered a DGI (Doesn't
GET it) as well as a "troll" by the entire forum at TimeBomb 2000, and if anyone suggested fearmongering he/she was labeled a troll, because "Y2k can't be fixed!" AND this is a place for LIKE-minded people! I stayed around to see what happened to the people when 2000 didn't result in their wet dreams come true (not possible for the FUD involved in peak oil, H5N1, or the countless other doomer scenarios). Several believers lost pretty much everything. They'd bought rice, beans, guns, gold, a place in the country (if they already weren't there), and believed that the banks would all fail so they wouldn't have to pay back what they'd charged. Divorces abounded, as the spouses of
those who thought "He/she's gone nuts!" got confirmation. I really felt sorry for one guy who had used his 401K money and retirement
savings to install solar panels on his home (in addition to all the other stuff).

So, getting back to the poll, I read Sharon on occasion for purely entertainment purposes (I don't mean this to be offensive to her; I don't think ANY of us TRY to deceive people; we all work with the data we have at the time.) I enjoy Crunchy's enthusiasm and regularity. Greenpa is closest to my age of all in the poll (I think he's 2 years or so younger than I am), and yeah... climate change was a big deal 30 years ago just as it is now. Only difference between us is that he made it to the "grow your own" commune 30 years ago and I didn't. (smile)
I'd have to say that my favorite of y'all, though, is Vanessa. She's not trying to convince anybody of anything. She simply posts what SHE did. She wanted to spend a year trying some changes on for size and she's pretty soon concluding that year. While she started out thinking
that these changes would be forever once she made them, she's willing to compromise on that and see just how far HER comfort level can go.
I'm doing the same thing ... trying out different things and seeing how far MY comfort level can go. I like that approach. Colin did something similar, but to write a book.

Hanley Tucks said...

Ms Core said, "In all the environmentally concerned couples I know it is the female who is more radical."

Then you'll have to get to know me and my woman, we're an exception to that.

I suspect it's simply that most of the real environmental stuff we can do is household stuff, and women are more likely to have a deciding voice in that.

I mean, as an individual I can't do much about some polluted river or a coal station being built, but I can take public transport, have us use less electricity or get it from wind power, eat less meat and so on. And that's domestic stuff, where because of our sexist society, women usually rule.

So a greenish guy will tend to give in to his not-so-greenish wife, while a greenish woman won't give in to her not-so-green husband. Thus even if there are just as many greenish guys as women, the guys won't get their way while the women will.

In our case, the man does the domestic stuff. So we're greenish as a couple.

I do think that women in general are more lefty and environmentally-aware - that's what polls show, after all - but setting aside opinions and looking at actual actions, well even if men were more green it wouldn't change things much.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha, I love it! I actually voted myself as the most "out there" because who in their right mind would ever try to do 366 freakin' green things at once?! Most days, I truly do think I'm a nut job. But this is great that no one else seems to concur... I have to tell my shrink. Oh wait, I don't have a shrink.

And hey, thanks oldnovice for the props -- if there's any "angle" I try to take in this big green community of bloggers, it's the "I'll give anything a shot, but if it sucks, don't expect me not to complain about it" one...

Where is Greenpa these days, anyway?

Crunchy Chicken said...

Greenpa appears to be M.I.A. Hopefully, he'll be back in action soon.

katecontinued said...

I miss Greenpa, that's why I said I wished he could use a voice-activated device to stay in touch with his blog.

jewishfarmer said...

OldNovice, I don't track my web traffic at all, so if you hadn't mentioned it, I would never have seen it. Thanks for the link.

I won't get us off track by arguing you, only note that I was completely with you on Y2K ;-).

Sharon

Anonymous said...

Hey everyone.
We're back. Had to take some time off for our mental health. I'll nudge GreenPa to make a post on his Blog.
I had to vote for GreenPa out of loyality.
I guess ten years ago living w/o indoor plumbing and a fridge would have seemed crazy. Nuts. Insane. Worth a padded room. Now not so much. I guess you get used to things you have to.
I laughed when I saw the poll. I'm actually still laughing every time I think of it. I knew I married an Environmental Nut Job, but it's gratifying to hear everyone else's opinion.
Thanks Crunchy. You made my day.
Thanks everyone else for the support. I'll nudge GreenPa for you.
Spice

Megan Beller said...

Greenpa gets my vote- he's just plain nuts...in a good way. Although they don't blog that I know of, the fiddler/guitarist couple from the band Crowfoot (check them out- they're awesome!) are off the grid in Maine. That blows my mind, and you should see their muscles from chopping wood...

Molly said...

Face it, Colin was just slumming, as are most of the folks who get (or hope to get) a book deal by going green for exactly a year. Greenpa really walks the walk.