A Closet Environmentalist

I am a closet environmentalist.

Whew . . . I feel better already. Let me explain. Most conservatives tend to view environmentalist as liberal nature worshippers. However, I believe all Christians should be environmentalists.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism is quoted below:

Q. 53. Which is the third commandment?
A. The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in
vain.Ex. 20:7.
Q. 54. What is required in the third commandment?
A. The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s
names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.Matt. 6:9; Deut. 28:58;
Ps. 68:4; Rev. 15:3-4; Mal. 1:11, 14; Ps. 138:1-2; Job 36:24.
Q. 55. What is forbidden in the third commandment?
A. The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of anything
whereby God maketh himself known.Mal. 1:6-7, 12; Mal. 2:2; Mal 3:1

So we are not to treat God’s works profanely or abusively. If creation is a work of God (which the catechism teaches in Q8 and Q9), then we are to be reverent in our use of it. I believe this means that we must be good stewards as we exercise dominion over the creation and the creatures.

There is a delicate balance between being a good steward and elevating the created to idol status. We strive daily to find and maintain that balance. It takes a lot of prayer and thought on our part as we seek to apply this truth to our home life.

One of the first things we put into place is the old standard: waste not, want not. We accompanied that with Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Here is a list of some things we have done as closet environmentalist:

1. Visited http://www.myfootprint.org/ to determine our starting footprint. I am not sure this takes into account enough factors, but it was a good starting place. Our starting point 2.5 earths needed! Yikes. We are currently at 1.5.
2. Installed compact florescent bulbs in all our lighting fixtures.
3. Stopped bringing home plastic bags from stores. Now we tote our own canvas or string bags. http://www.reusablebags.com/ is an excellent source for many non-plastic items. (Pattern for knitted string bag to follow)
4. Replaced plastic water bottles with Kleen Kanteen bottles (see above link). Replaced plastic storage containers with glass or stainless steel.
5. Designed a recycling center for the utility room. 100% compliance within the house.
6. Reuse more of our junk mail as scrap paper.
7. Installed and used UL wood burning stove. We use already down or standing dead trees for fuel, we also plant 2 trees for every tree we use. This had the additional benefit of reducing our electric bill in the winter to just above our spring/fall averages. We did leave the furnace set to 50 just in case! It probably kicked on 6 times all winter.
8. Garden, garden, garden and farmer’s markets. We are able to feed ourselves 9 months out of the year with our garden produce, farmer’s market buys, local contacts for honey, fruit in quantity. We dehydrate, can, and freeze as much as possible. We also only eat animal products that come from our homestead. That means eggs in spring, summer, and early fall; dairy only if a goat is milking (although we do cheat for pizza night); and meat very rarely.
9. We also try to not buy new if we can find it second hand. We have furnished most of our home that way.
10. We have switched to all natural cleaners and personal hygiene products. We use our washer, but not the dryer.

Areas we are working on right now:

1. I do need to buy everyone new futon/mattresses. I definitely will be buying those new. I’m still researching options.
2. Water heaters. I can’t decide if we should just get a new, efficient regular water heater or a tankless water heater.
3. Researching metal roofing, rain catchment, and water filtration units.

KMH