Saving The Trees, Man

Another-Day have teamed up with GreenPop to raise funds to plant trees in Zambia.  It costs R100 a tree and, at the moment, we’re looking to raise around R3000 in total. We’ve already started raising funds but need your help to get more out there. Help us by clicking this link and giving what you can to the cause.

While I would love to say I am all about saving the trees and living a carbon neutral life, the reality of the matter is I am not. I am a hyper-consumerist capitalist pig dog (I like pretty things OK?) that doesn’t carpool or use public transport all that often. And I go through a shit tonne (that’s 10 times as much as an ass-load) of paper every day. I am probably single-handedly responsible for why Trees for Zambia needs to happen. It’s one of the realities of my day job, but I think that is the case for a huge majority of our country.

That being said, it does not mean I simply give 0 fucks about the environment. After all it is very hip du jour to know the name of the steak I am about to eat (yes I still eat meat and wear leather, and yes I have seen Earthlings and all shock treatment “documentaries” telling my why I shouldn’t).

I compost all my minimal food waste (I will eat almost every single part of the animal and plant), I make sure batteries and other toxic things that my techno-driven life can’t live without are disposed of properly. I may also use a lot of paper, but I also make sure I use every last little inch of that page before I pop it into the nice orange recycling bag.

Another-Day also has, if you hadn’t noticed, a bit of a comic obsession so our hobbies aren’t really conducive to being all greenie beanie, and before you go on about things going digital just do a quick Google search on Coltan. It’s used to make all your iPads, cell phones and e-readers. I would also link you to some articles but they’re mostly academic papers and nobody feels like wading through 18-30 pages of academic jargon.

Let’s be real here, nobody wants to change their cushy middle class consumerist existence too drastically because, let’s face it, we hate change. Even if it is something as trivial as our Facebook notifications swapping sides. So trying to tell anyone they need to radically shift the way they think is like getting the Westboro Baptists to be OK with just about anything except the book of Leviticus.

It is much easier to take things easy and get involved with companies like GreenPop who are ready to go the whole hog (hint: buy trees). Lifehacker recently had a really cool article on how marginal increases can lead to massive holistic impacts. I know I caused a huge amount of Vegan rage at the beginning of this article by saying I eat meat, but realistically that’s only once or twice a week. I also do all the other good things I mentioned earlier and some other stuff. Look I’ve even distilled it into a picture for you with some completely arbitrary numbers that claim I am single-handedly saving the planet far more effectively than Captain Planet ever did.