Green people insisting you get rid of your car

[Tradd]

Perfect example of why some of us don’t look kindly on “green” people.

Had a car accident yesterday. Car drivable for local but not for FL trip so I’m renting a car.

I’ve been getting messages from “green” friends that it would be a perfect time to downsize and GET RID of my car. Um, no! I have a 40 mile daily commute to work. I live where there is no public transit (aside from the trains to downtown Chicago), and with my bad knees I already don’t do any walking. To get to any stores I’d have to walk 3/4 mile minimum. I was told to just give up my diving for the good of the environment because I drive too much. What are people thinking? They know about where I live and the physical issues. When I pointed that out again, I was told they didn’t care. Environment more important. Get a bike was the answer. In the Midwest in the winter? They don’t care. I was told to give up current job and get a WFH one.

I told them they’d best stop preaching their Green Gospel at me. I pointed out that one of them has 5 kids and a Suburban, yet they’re telling single, no kids me that I’m a drain on the environment.

[early morning]

I consider myself fairly green but would never presume to tell someone they did not need a car, when clearly they do! These people don't sound particularly green or like your friends. Just sayin'.

[bae]

It's about a 10 mile round trip to the local market and village from my house. It is easily bicycleable - if you are a good cyclist, there is about a 1200 ft elevation gain in the last mile or so. An electric-assist bicycle helps some, but it is still a "healthy" climb.

The road is also small, twisty, has no shoulders, has frequent rockfall on it, and has lots of deer that jump out into the road even during daytime. This makes it extra fun to ride on. In addition, the weather here is often "sporty", which makes bicycling extra "fun".

As a result, much of the time I drive a little Fiat electric car, which is fine for local use. When the weather is atrocious though, I break out a Hummer H1, as it's one of the few things that can make it up/down my mountain road when it's bad.

I've had local greenies complain about the Hummer. Now, these "locals" often only live here a few weeks a year in their nice expensive homes built in wetlands buffer zones, and they usually fly to get here....

So, I basically ignore them. I had a "powered by whale oil biodiesel" sticker on the truck for a while as a protest, but it got covered in moss.

[JaneV2.0]

I agree with the sentiment that each one of us gets to make their own decisions about how to contribute to a greener society. I take a lot of positive actions, like driving 1000 miles or less a year, buying used, keeping heating use low, not reproducing, etc.--and others that aren't so much. (For a non-ambulatory person, I do have a lot of shoes...)

I've upped my protein (meat, local, pastured) consumption to combat age-related sarcopenia, and I'll be damned if I'm going to eat insects. I'll give up my car on my timetable. Busybodies are always tiresome.

[catherine]

This is what I love about the book Bright Green Lies--it points out the problem of forming a monolithic, mainstream environmental coalition with a list of immutable "rules"--one of them being "Thou shalt push for renewables no matter what."

Environmentalists can be just as obnoxious as reformed smokers or "enlightened" vegetarians.

As for your environmentalist "friends"--you could simply tell them, "hey, I'll be happy to stack my carbon footprint against yours any day!" Junking a drivable car because it runs on fossil fuels is not very environmentally friendly. Lithium mining to turn the whole world EV by 2030 isn't environmentally friendly. The environmental movement has been co-opted by larger, profit-making forces and those forces have pushed the messages that your friends are playing back to you.

[JaneV2.0]

... The environmental movement has been co-opted by larger, profit-making forces and those forces have pushed the messages that your friends are playing back to you.

That scenario has played out in numerous different arenas (medicine comes to mind). In this country, it's all about the money.

[Tradd]

Actually, they wanted me to be CAR FREE, not get an EV.

[frugal-one]

Tell the Suburban mom to go car free….. or MYOB.

[bae]

I've upped my protein (meat, local, pastured) consumption ...

I have to think that grass-fed meat that I source from my neighbor's farm, where I can see the animals everyday, and where the animals are processed on-site, is perhaps more "eco" than vegetarian ingredients grown across the country and shipped here.

[catherine]

I have to think that grass-fed meat that I source from my neighbor's farm, where I can see the animals everyday, and where the animals are processed on-site, is perhaps more "eco" than vegetarian ingredients grown across the country and shipped here.

Absolutely.