paper or plastic?

More and more I have been considering my actions and the effect they have on the environment. I was big into environmental issues when it was fashionable in the late 80s- all about saving whales and rain forests and that jazz. Some habits stuck- I still turn off the water while brushing my teeth. Other habits gave way to convenience or finances or just a general lack of awareness.

But over time, I returned to giving notice, in no small part due to the resurgence in popularity of environmentalism. I have reusable grocery bags (and then run out of poo bags for my dog). I recycle everything the city will take away, and bring batteries and other hazardous recyclables to the appropriate drop-off. I try to be fuel-efficient. Even small things, like declining a paper receipt or mailed bank statements have become routine.

I appreciate things of an organic nature. I'm trying more and more to get local and organic food (if and when I can afford it). In an odd way, I feel like everything that is synthetic is just plastic. To me, there is no essential difference between Twinkies and Tupperware- and I figure you could break all of it down to something explosive and flammable at some point. I realize that this is inaccurate, but I'm not a chemist or physicist and I'm not even sure what branch of science this argument falls under. I'm okay with that. The gist is that I try to take care of the planet and show concern for it.

There is, however, an arena where I am unable to go paperless. As environmentally conscious as the Kindle may be (and as far as my chemistry knowledge goes, it could take x-rays for all I know), I can't let go of books. I need them. No matter how long I can be on this computer, I can't read the same thing for longer than 5 or 10 minutes. Oh, this article has a link I need to click to get to the next page? Hope there was nothing important, because I don't have the attention span for that. But a book. Oh, there is something beautiful and romantic and sentimental about a book. And I'm not reading beautiful, romantic, or sentimental books, in general. I read sports books and essayists and a lot of non-fiction. But I can't go anywhere without a book in my bag. I went to the library today with 3 or 4 books in mind that I wanted to check out. The online catalog was down (and of course, no real card catalog... damn technology), so a librarian checked their backup system for my books- none of which were available. So, none of those books were there, and I couldn't really look up anything else. I wandered around for a bit, checking out the new books section and the library's recent "popular items" section. A recap:

1. They did not have any of the 3-4 books I went to get.
2. The card catalog was down, so I couldn't search the locations of any books.
3. I browsed probably a total of 10-12 sets of shelves between the two sections.

I left with 11 books, including Twain, MLK, Tim Gunn, and Perez Hilton.

I'm going to go plant a few trees now.