Realization: I am an eco-snob

By no means am I as green as I can be in every aspect of my life. Convenience and lower prices will often derail my green intentions. But that does not keep me from being a massive eco-snob at times. This dawned on me today as I biked home from a visit to the Slow Foods Victory Garden in San Francisco’s Civic Center and was forced to battle for pavement with a massive double-tired, extended-cab, extra-wide shiny black truck. I don’t have as much control over my facial expressions as I sometimes wish I do and I was taken back to a moment not too long ago when I grimaced uncontrollably at the sight of one of my closest girlfriends being approached by a skeezy guy in a club. I didn’t mean for my face to reveal my repulsion, but the skeez himself saw me cringe and backed off! Whoops. Well, in a very similar manner, I made an involuntary expression of disgust as I passed this very large truck in pristine condition occupied by one lone man with no cargo. That’s when I realized I had done it several times on just one bike ride. I turn my nose at large carbon footprints!

While I thought I had invented this term on my own, a quick Google search taught me I am by no means alone in looking down upon poor environmental habits.

A February 2007 LA Times article, Confessions of an eco-snob, reveals a strikingly similar feeling:

At a gas station one afternoon, I felt perfectly comfortable leveling a death-ray glare at the soccer mom behind me. I hated her simply for her passenger-free, fuel-sucking Land Rover – which was certainly canceling out all my hybrid’s hard eco-work. As she nervously studied the interior of her designer purse to avoid eye contract with the clearly psychotic woman facing her (me), I felt no guilt in wishing an eco-karma death for her. (Choking on her own fumes would be ironic, but swallowed whole by polar bears worked too.)

Eco-snobbery has been acknowledged in Britain as well, as a February 2008 Telegraph article describes:

What was it, this frisson that passed between the young woman behind the counter at Pret A Manger and me? It wasn’t flirtation, exactly. It was more conspiratorial than that. A knowing look. A social judgment shared.

As she asked me if I wanted a plastic bag for my two items – a (wild) salmon sandwich and a banana – the man at the head of the queue next to mine was asked the same question by another assistant. He had a sandwich and an apple. The point is, I said no. He said yes. That was when the look was exchanged…

The eco-snobs are the worst. It is not enough they get to feel better about themselves for doing the right thing environmentally; they have to make someone else feel worse. Make them feel small, vulgar, immoral. I caught myself doing it in that queue the other day. And shame on me for that.

Yes, eco-snobbery can’t be a good thing. Why should I be scowling at fellow human beings? To some extent we all pay for our carbon footprint in the form of sky high gas prices and rising airline ticket costs among other things. But there must be a better way than condescension to encourage others to “consider the environment” before doing any number of things. For now I’m just going to do my best by trying not to scowl at SUV owners and leading by example where I can.

For more on this check out: Are you an eco-snob? 10 sure signs you’ve gone too green

 

Ride on, garbagpreneur, ride on

Chris has an honorable, eco-friendly day job working for San Francisco’s recycling company, but in his spare time is when he makes a world of difference. An avid cyclist with easy access to San Francisco’s waste stream, Chris removes bicycles from the dump and refurbishes them in his backyard. He then sells his bikes on Craigslist out of a mini-store container near his office. He calls his business Salvation Cycles and he takes “pride in having redirected a thousand discarded bikes back into the flow of traffic.” You won’t find him on the web however, as he’s “a low tech garbagpreneur” without a web site. It all sounds so simple. And when you account for the 1,000 discarded bikes that Chris was put back in service, his impact is impressive. Back of the envelope calculations reveal that riders Chris’ work through Salvation Cycles conserves 24,768 gallons of gas per year (assuming commuters purchase the bikes, ride 6 miles per day round-trip, 3 days per week, 8 months per year, and they would have otherwise driven getting 25MPG for city driving). As Chris says “Not bad for one guy wrenching under a shade tree on weekends in his back yard.”

I want to see more people doing this sort of thing – it makes sense in every way. Chris is doing something he loves, making money on the side, diverting waste from the landfills, conserving raw materials from extraction and energy from the manufacturing of bicycles, contributing to a healthier lifestyle for his customers, and also taking cars off the street and reducing emissions!

Let me know if know of others doing similarly creative, innovative and sustainable work. This is exactly the type of resourceful entrepreneurial spirit I want to honor and encourage.