Time's Up for Buy Nothing New!

Some of you readers my know that 6 months ago I took a personal pledge--to not buy anything new for 6 months. Well, on August 1st--the 6 months is over. How did this pledge affect me? Well, to my surprise this pledge did not really force much of change to my lifestyle. I already mostly shopped at local thrift stores for many items--the biggest change was not buying new books, or yarn, or beads. The 2 areas I cheated (---just a little ;-) in were books and yarn. I did buy 3 new books (in 6 months! that is hardly nothing...for me--I used to buy 3 or 4 a month) and some yarn for projects. (Not all this yarn, but you get the picture....)

The other area I noticed was the thought process I went through on small impulse type purchases. At first, I would have to remind myself--even though I liked that cool drawing pen--I did not really need it? and besides--it was new--so a "no-no." Later, I could just look at goods for sale, and know I was just looking--and WOW! did I save $$$ by not buying all those impulse purchases??? Yep! plus---less clutter from needless stuff. I guess this was a good reminder that most of the stuff we think we need (or our culture tells us we need)--we can do without.

That said, I do have a small list of new things I plan to purchase--most having to do with recycling or alternatives modes of transportation, or my design business: bike racks for my bike (so I can carry groceries), this water bottle (so I can always carry filtered water from our tap), and a larger bed scanner and printer (for my design business), and a laptop (again for my business). But most other stuff I can do without---what a revelation!

A National Day of Climate Action

I was so excited by this nation-wide action that I wanted to help spread the word! On the Step It Up website you will find this letter from noted environmental author Bill McKibben:

Dear Friends—

This is an invitation to help start a movement--to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future. Those of us who know that climate change is the greatest threat civilization now faces have science on our side; we have economists and policy specialists, courageous mayors and governors, engineers with cool new technology.

But we don't have a movement—the largest rally yet held in the U.S. about global warming drew a thousand people. If we're going to make the kind of change we need in the short time left us, we need something that looks like the civil rights movement, and we need it now. Changing light bulbs just isn't enough.

So pitch in. A few of us are trying to organize a nationwide day of hundreds and hundreds of rallies on April 14. We hope to have gatherings in every state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.

We need rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps.

Every group will be saying the same thing: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises-the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.

As people gather, we'll link pictures of the protests together electronically via the web-before the weekend is out, we'll have the largest protest the country has ever seen, not in numbers but in extent. From every corner of the nation we'll start to shake things up.

By its very nature, this action needs all kinds of people to help out. We can't make it happen-it has to assemble itself.

Sign up to host an action. We'll coordinate the responses, introducing you to others from your area, and give you everything you need to be a leader, from banners to press releases.

You don't have to have ever done anything like this-you're not organizing a March on Washington, just a gathering of scores or hundreds in your town or neighborhood.

We need creativity, good humor, commitment. If you are active in a campus group or a church or a local environmental group or a garden society or a bike club-or if you just saw Al Gore's movie and want to do something-then we need you now.

And by now, we mean now.

The best science tells us we have ten years to fundamentally transform our economy and lead the world in the same direction or else, in the words of NASA's Jim Hansen, we will face a "totally different planet," one infinitely sadder and less flourishing.

The recent elections have given us an opening, and polling shows most Americans know there's a problem. But the forces of inertia and business-as-usual are still in control, and only our voices, united and loud, joyful and determined, can change that reality.

Please join us.

Bill McKibben

New Year Buy Nothing New Pledge

After much contemplative thought, I am pledging that in the first 6 months of 2007, I will buy nothing new. With the obvious exception of food, medicine, and new underwear--I pledge to buy nothing new until July 1st 2007.

I am lead to this pledge for many reasons--the foremost being a witness for change in our consumerism culture. With this in mind, I pledge to not only buy nothing new, but to talk and write about this action.

I first heard of this concept (lifestyle change?) in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle a year ago--here is the blog site of "The Compact"--the original buy-nothing-new group, which has inspired me to this action. And here is another quite fun blog on this subject: Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

A hint to me just how much we accept the buy-new-stuff-all-the-time messages of our culture was one reaction from my 28 year old daughter---"Wow, Mom, that is radical!" she said. Why is this pledge radical? and what does viewing this action as a radical step say about our culture?