“Sustainable Thanksgiving Leftovers”

My relatives and I should know by now that Thanksgiving is not a forum for political discussion.  But every holiday season we seem to get into it, and I’m always outnumbered.

I come from a family of Republicans that pretend to be democrats– the worst kind of people.  I love my family, no matter who they vote for or what they believe; despite the fact that I was brutally tackled to the ground by cousin Dereck for being an Austinite-hippie (They’ve always treated me like a boy that can take a hit, therefore, I can).

In really listening to them over the holiday, I came to the conclusion that Americans are largely disconnected from the natural world: All we see is money and convenience.  I can’t blame them.  It’s the world we live in.  My final response to their ramblings of Obama’s higher taxes and rationing carbon was simply a lesson they once passed on to me: “Don’t spend what you don’t have.”

I don’t care if you believe that animal species are dying off, or that Greenland will melt into a puddle completely flooding Manhattan.  The point is that resources are finite, and the population is growing at unsustainable rates.  We don’t have enough water to go around. We don’t have enough oil to go around.

Why do we Americans feel at privilege to waste all of it?  Who gives us the right?  Just because your local gas station sells it to you at only $2.85/gallon doesn’t mean that you can afford.  We as a people cannot.

I hope that one day we can all return to a time when living sustainably doesn’t mean that you’re a tree-hugging hippie, but merely an intelligent and responsible earthling.

So, how can you be a responsible earthling you ask?  Well for starters, let’s seal the Copenhagen deal.  The UN has launched a “Seal the Deal” campaign to urge world leaders to reach a real solution with the climate change crisis.  Really, we’re just trying to level the playing field.  Resources should be accessible to all humans, which naturally means that Americans would definitely be making some cuts.  We are the greatest country on earth because we do what’s right and just.  So let’s do what’s right and just.  Sign the Seal The Deal Petition.

And while not every member of family may  be “sealing the deal,” I at least got us to get a little closer by piling into just one SUV rather than two while we rode to the theater after Thanksgiving dinner.