Poll: readers mostly in unison on green living
A majority of readers in the poll last week seem to be well matched with mates who feel as they do about living a green lifestyle. (Poll: Your household divided by a green line?)
Poll: Does a green line divide your household? Between those who choose to live green and those that don’t?
- No problem, we’re on the same page: 52 [57%]
- I live alone: 20 [22%]
- Mildly irritating: 11 [12%]
- Other answer… 8 [9%]
- Divisive with resentments and arguments: 1 [1%]
- I want an eco-divorce, our values aren’t the same anymore 0 [0%]
The first two “other†responses represented a couple of readers who are probably expressing “green fatigue,†the U.K. term for the eco-backlash to a barrage of green moralism. While other comments divided evenly between support for a diversity of opinion and certain resentments:
- I’m tired of being told to be green.
- Get over it, never been green.
- They are willing to go along as long as I do the work.
- I’ve been green for years.
- Live with lazy parents.
- We respect each other’s opinion and live accordingly.
- We have eco-tension.
- Platonic homeowners here – with a divide. Non-divisive.
There are many things that may have affected the outcome of this poll. City dwellers are probably a little more eco-conscious to begin with since the decisions that lead to an urban lifestyle (walkable neighborhoods, commutes by mass transit, and multi-family housing) are in and of themselves environmental choices.
Age may also play a role as younger couples may have taken eco-values in consideration during their courtships, while older couples may have more conflicts since eco-values weren’t a part of the equation when they originally selected their partner.  At any age, eco-conversions can be painful when one partner adopts a green lifestyle while the other partner clings to the same-old ways of living.
Then there is the bias of geography. Eco-tensions would be dealbreakers in Seattle or Portland; a violation of strong, commonly held social norms. Here in St. Louis, not so much.
Given all the other things that can drive a wedge in a relationship—money, children, unemployment, ill health—eco-concerns pale in comparison. The bottom line is that most people don’t consider a difference of opinion about green living as a serious enough breach to jeopardize their partnerships. At least for now.
– Deborah Moulton
Green is the new PC (politically correct). Saying it and really doing it are two very different things. We live in a consumer society that sucks up significantly more resources than many other parts of the world. We heat and cool rooms we're not using, and we have packaging for our packaging that ends up in the landfill every day. Reducing consumption by 10% or 20% is a worthwhile goal, but still leaves us each consuming multiples of what our counterpart is consuming in Europe, Africa, Asia or South America. Unless and until we all decide to live in unheated shacks and to ride bicycles to our local collective farm, forgoing the internet, our cell phones and our beach vacations, we're gonna be consuming, not really being green . . .
There is plenty of room between our current lives and living in unheated shacks.
Urban dwellers are not more eco-conscious than suburban/exurban dwellers. Urban dwellers are just more green by default. It's hard to be green if you have a 55 mile commute or have to drive all the time, even to just pick up a cup of coffee.