Monday, June 30, 2008

Grumpy in the heat

It rained in Austin last night !!! After about a month of extremely hot weather with highs consistently in the high 90s, it was exciting to hear the drumming of raindrops on the roof.

I feel completely out of touch with the outdoors. Usually summer weekends are spent hiking and doing things outdoors. This year we are spending the summer in air-conditioned bubbles, some big (home, gym, work, stores), some small and moving (car), and try to spend as little time as possible outside.

Is this kind of living sustainable? Sensible? Healthy? Is it even "living"?!

The only reason people live in large numbers in these extremely hot and extremely cold places year-round is because of air-conditioning. We pretend this is normal, grow artificial green lawns in the middle of the desert and spend a lot of money, time and emotions trying to keep alive plants and grass that cannot naturally stay alive in these conditions.

For this life-style we consume SO MUCH energy!! Our carbon footprints are off the charts, so recycling etc seem like trivial efforts to "save the environment". We need to MOVE !!

One good thing is, I've been hang-drying my laundry out on a line. It dries in less than an hour! This is a microscopic attempt at putting a dent in the dirty energy producing process called coal mining.

I wish I had the patience to make vadaam - it would be a great way to put this heat to good use.

3 comments:

Nitu said...

Bindu,
I'm so glad you are blogging...another way of knowing what you are up to. Last Sat, I strayed into a hip-hop concert on the East River...sort of a green-themed concert...some artists had displayed installation art at the venue as well. There were some really cool ones...floral lamps made with discarded plastic bottles...another had used waste wood to highlight the ills of strip-mining. Wish I had taken pictures :(

bindu said...

hey! Why don't you write too, about your experiences in the city - would be more interesting than ole Texas, for sure!

Sydney said...

I completely agree with you, and it's why I would really like to move from Houston. Where it's cold I guess the same thing could be said re: carbon footprint to keep warm in winter and then cool in the summers, but I actually really miss the change of seasons so badly, especially at holiday time.

To me, I feel greatly out of touch with the passing of time without true seasons, and not as connected to mother earth, even if I am living in a city. But I wrote about that on my blog this summer...

But we want to be on some land where we can try to grow some food, hope to care for some animals if my allergies don't prevent it, and be more energy efficient with heat and AC. It's tough, no matter what you do -- as your posts and reading attest.