Letting It All Hang Out for Mother Earth

Appearances. It's something our American society so often priorities over what is so essential. Think of all the time many spend grooming themselves, shopping for and donning stylish clothes, shoes and accessories, and working out at the gym, but when it comes to their eating habits, little thought is put into how the food being put inside one's body is produced (think growth hormones, genetically-modified ingredients, and pesticides, for starters).

The same extends to our homes. Is the physical appearance of that perfectly green, manicured lawn worth all the chemicals leached into our soil? Is the convenience of driving that large SUV and its style (often just to keep up with the Joneses) worth the extra pollution it is spewing into our air?

Some Americans are thankfully returning to a more simple way of life and getting back to the basics. Little lifestyle changes translate into major benefits long-term, both for the Earth and our wallets. But the visual is again coming into play. Some neighbors are annoyed at the sight of laundry hanging on a line (a sight I find completely charming and rustic). Isn't all the added pollution caused by powering those clothes dryers more outrageous when we think about it? Perhaps because air pollution is something we cannot always necessarily see with our eyes, many do not abhor it as much as we should.

With that CBS Sunday Morning's Bill Geist featured this amusing, bewildering and though-provoking piece on one woman's battle to combat global warming, one clean shirt, towel and sock at a time.


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Flashback to my entry on Project Laundry List, the group behind the grassroots effort to promote the quite radical act of hang-drying.