by SUZANNE
MALAKOFF | posted 03.08.06
Every Wednesday after I bike or bus home from work, I hop in the car and take my daughter to a gym across town. She's a natural gymnast, the coach thinks highly of her and wishes she were interested in competing because she would be an asset to the team.
I'm not bragging about my kid (OK, maybe I am), I'm talking about why I abandon my environmental sensibilities once a week and drive her there. She loves springing across the floor and balancing on the beam, and I have the ability to make this happen for her. I can't imagine denying her this opportunity because it's too far to bike or there's no mass transit available to get her here or because we can't afford to switch to a hybrid car or a car that can use biodiesel.
Every week, I push aside any guilt that may well up inside of me. It could be that I'm more aware than anyone else in this gym of issues like clean air and global warming: I work and volunteer in the environmental community of Olympia, Wash.
In discussions with friends and professional colleagues, we often talk about how to make "them" -- other people -- change their habits. We want people to become more aware of the need for clean energy and renewable fuels. But here's the truth: In our own desire for things to be convenient and affordable, most environmentalists aren't much different from anyone else.
Most of us aren't going to use mass transit if it's not convenient and doesn't work well with our schedules. We may not buy from the local guy if the cost is too hard on the budget, and we won't stop plugging in our computers regardless of where the energy comes from to power them. We are going to continue to do what we perceive we need to do to live our lives.
In our personal lives, we may be willing to buy green tags or invest in energy efficient appliances, but we're not going to give up what we love, be it driving our cars, skiing, long hot showers or gas heat. "They" aren't going to give up what they love either, even if it's driving their SUV's or skiing or taking long hot showers.
When clean energy and renewable fuels are so affordable and convenient that we don't have to think about when we start dinner or start out on a journey, then we will all embrace and use them. Either that or something will happen that will force us to change our habits. I prefer the former, but we may all have to deal with the latter.
If the gas prices get high enough, I'll quit driving my daughter across town to the gym and she'll accept that -- the same way she accepts the fact that we can't get her a horse because we don't have the resources to keep one. We will all quit bringing our kids to the gym, not only because of the price of gas, but also because the cost of living will make tuition unaffordable -- and the gym will probably close down.
Maybe then someone will get motivated to start something right in our neighborhood to replace driving everywhere for our kids' extracurricular activities. Maybe someone should have done something like that long ago, and we wouldn't face this dilemma, but that isn't as easy as dropping a check in the mail and showing up at an already established gym every Wednesday night.
If you told the parents of these young gymnasts that all of us need to start moving toward clean and renewable energy or the classes their children are enjoying will cease to exist, they would probably shrug. Nothing that surprising is going to happen soon. In any case, most can't afford to buy clean cars, and if the gym remodels to become more energy-efficient, the tuition will no doubt go up, and no one will be able to afford to come here any more. Best to leave things as they are so the kids have a place to go.
I'd like to shrug, too. But I know better.
Suzanne Malakoff is a contributor to Writers on the Range. She lives in Olympia, Washington.