I have had this discussion with friends on multiple occasions, and I had never written about it! The topic? Balancing lifestyle with living green.

I am all about living green… whatever that really does mean, I’m not sure any one person could give a complete and accurate definition that all would agree upon.  However, I am also all about living comfortably in society and experiencing technology.  In some fashions this can be a very contradicting position to be in.

When listening to people talk about better lifestyle practices to help save the planet, they sometimes start going a little bit overboard.  I always want to hold up my hand, asking for a moment, and point out that, “if we all go back to the stone age, our carbon-footprint will be much much smaller”.

Simple, I just solved global warming.

But sadly, it is not as simple as this.  In our society, we have certain luxuries that people feel they can not live without, one being a automobile.  In our society, we research new ‘things’, such as vaccines, transportation, computers, and more of those sorts.  These luxuries and life saving/helping/easing concepts are (in most cases) enhancing our lives.  There needs to be a balance in living for a better tomorrow.  While these enhancements to our ways of life are present, they are contradicting themselves if they are indeed shortening lives, for us, or future generations.

The New Yorker Animated Cartoon Podcast from Friday brought up these thoughts.  I have no solution to the balance.  My views tend to gear more towards using research and technology, taking 1 step backwards to take 3 steps forward, in finding a just balance.  No solutions in this post, just some thoughts.  Enjoy the short cartoon!