How do you know if you are Green?

Question

How do you personally know if you are Green or not?

What does being Green mean to you?

Answer 1

Green means to me, "am I helping the Earth, or hurting it", if the answer is "helping", then I feel "GREEN", if I am hurting it (the Earth), then I dont feel green. Do you recycle? Do you take your plastic bags back to the store to be recycled? (Walmart, Target and other stores accept your plastic bags back after you have used them), these are only a couple of questions that you can ask yourself, and things that you can do to help the Earth, and become "GREEN".

Answer 2

I can tell when I step outside on my farm, basically with my five sences.

I can breath deeply, and smell the pasture, the fruit trees, the earth, the water, the cedar trees, the ocean fog (salty), even the good clean smell of a fresh manure deposited on the pasture.

I do NOT smell a manure lagoon, or chemicals.

I can hear not only my livestock, like mother goats calling kids out on the pasture, or horse whineys, and the thundering of hooves as they get spunky and gallop by, but I can also hear nature, because nature is not excluded from my farm.  I can hear the humming zip of a hummingbird, the scream of a Bald Eagle, the prehistoric squak of a blue heron, the sleepy buzzing of native bees, the babble of our creek as it spills over the beaver dam, the thrashing of a 30 pound salmon as it makes it's way up our creek to spawn, the frog who sing to me at night,  the buzz of a dragon fly, the pips of bats at night, or the hooting of barn owls as they hunt our pastures at night.  

I do NOT hear the constant and incessant calling of a distressed animal, because it's in too small, and too crowded a cage, or forced to be separated from it's young.  I do NOT hear the drone of fans and airconditioners used to keep animals alive in over-crowded barns.  I do NOT hear machines starting up to feed the livestock, because they are all living naturally on pasture.  I do NOT hear the vapid silence of a huge mono-crop farm that has forced nature to move elsewhere.

I can walk anywhere on my property and pick anything that is edible to humans and pop it directy into my mouth...the tastes are complete heaven.  To taste an apple, cherry, wild blackberry, or even just a piece of clover out in the pasture...with no fear of injesting toxic chemicals.

When I go outside, I do not "taste" chemicals, or have to chew through manure lagoon air.  The foods I grow actually taste like what they ARE, not some bit of tasteless food-stuff from the grocery store.

I can feel the warm earth....I can even go barefoot if I'm willing to brave finding a slug with my foot.  I can touch the soft fur or feathers of any of the animals living on my farm....because they are not afraid of me, and are quiet use to possitive human attention.  I can walk on my farm and feel the winds, the sun, and the rain, which are not blocked by tall buildings, nor filled with smog from too many vehicles.

I do NOT feel cement below my feet, nor do I feel the eyes of a single human being upon me, as the tree provide complete privacy.  I do not feel my eyes stung my harsh lights in over-crowded barns, nor do I feel my noise hairs singed with amonia from the urine of overcrowded animals.

Most blessed of all, I can see all of this bounty and beauty around me.  I can watch goat kids race and frolick, and scamper to their mothers.  I can watch my horses dance wildly about pastures during thunderstorms, or first winter snows.  I can see a butterfly skip about the fields, or dance in some mad matting frenzy when there are two of them.  I can watch a garter snake in my garden swallow some impossibly large bug.  I can see the heron as it flies into our pond every evening for it's late snack.  I can see the two pairs of Canadian Geese swimming proudly about with their newly hatched goslings.  I can see the mist from the ocean, roll in, and over our farm, just like waves.  I see the chaos and beauty of nature in every part of our farm.

I do NOT see sad animals looking out from pens, nor livestock covered with masses of flies, and manure caked thick to hides and tails.  I do not see masses of only one crop.  Nor do I see signs that say Danger, Toxic, Keep Out, Poison.  I do not see manure lagoons, nor run off problems, nor soil erosion/depleation.  

To me, being "green" mean not ever being ashamed to show my home or farm off to people, because I have nothing to be ashamed of.  It means being able to witness vibrant life with all five of my sences, and not just life I have installed on the farm, but nature as well.  If nature herself will live happily and abundantly where you live, I figure that person is doing something right.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 3

A way to become a more green person is to begin by ridding yourself and your home of toxins and toxin producing items, such as cleaners. I have a great alternative that is 100% plant based and organic. Visit www.shaklee.net/mariposas  or email me to find out how you can safely dispose of your current cleansers and replace them with better and cheaper items. [e-mail]

Answer 4

Some good answers already!  To me, being green means you actively seek to be part of the solution to a problem you acknowledge is human created.  We have to get real about our part in the stewardship of the earth and get everyone to do a better job of caring for it.  Do you try to lessen your footprint by reducing your consumer impact, recycling what you can, using less shared resources?  Do you try to involve other people in this as well when possible?  No one can be green all the time, but at the end of the day have your pluses outnumbered your minuses?  If they have, you're green.

Answer 5

I HAVE GREEN EYES

Answer 6

If you believe that humankind created this mess and we are responsible for fixing it, you are green.

How far you go in your practical application of this concept is up to you

but if one doesn't believe it, how can we ever get to the solutions?

Answer 7

I suppose I have build up a picture of what green is from the media, from the internet, from other people, from books and from Permaculture. I am green, possibly deep green. Being green for me means that I am acting in accordance with my core values, EarthCare, FairShares, PeopleCare (Browse Permaculture).

Answer 8

You can join the Green Party and become an active member trying to bring change to our political system.

You can live your life to a set of tenets you decide that display a green lifestyle, something like  using solar power, riding public transportation, eating food produced from local farmers, supporting causes that you believe are green.

You can look for employment in a field that is considered green, like an environmental manager, a consultant on waste, sustainability management, e-engineering.

Being green is an individual decision and thus needs to be followed up on by the individual to a level they can commit to.

Answer 9

I suppose not littering and not being wasteful with energy or anything,in the daily happenings.

having NO  negative effect  on your surroundings in the environmental sense,

Although i believe in practice ,Human intervention should   sow improvements whilst living  in a sustainable manner.

Personally i feel green when i change Nothing that produced nothing (like a vacant lot or a dump) back into Nature of some sort that looks nice and yields something to be desired by somebody , and the neighbors are green with envy.

Answer 10

personally, i dislike labels; my actions and inactions are unique to me.  twenty people could observe them and come up with twenty different conclusions about how green i am.

personally, i believe that it's important to leave the earth a better place than we found it.  i try to leave no trace of my presence, especially so in natural or undisturbed areas.  i believe man has made far too heavy a mark on the earth and her creatures, and it's way past time to remedy those marks.  i believe nature has given us models to live by, and that we have strayed from them in our haste to develop, progress, and make money.  we usurp our fellow man and our environment to this end, and i believe it's time to stop and persuade others to stop also.  i try to model this philosophy, and realize that i must try harder.

beliefs and actions like these are often labeled "green", but whatever you call them, they're important to me.