Can Going Green Improve a Relationship?

I was just thinking about some of the ways being environmentally friendly has made my utterly fantastic marriage even better.

For me, there’s (almost) nothing sexier than my husband, Mark, wearing an organic, Made-in-the-USA t-shirt and shopping at our local Farmer’s Market with his “I’m a Man of the Cloth Bag” tote from EcoVixen.com.

Ahem. But I digress. Here’s a little (organic) food for thought:

The Top 10 Ways Going Green Improves a Relationship

10. With all the money you save at the pump driving a hybrid, you can still afford to go out on the weekends.

9. With all the money you save buying local fruits and veggies, you can still afford to go out during the week.

8. Two words: organic wine (and don’t forget making a toast with green glassware).

7. You traded your conventional, and toxic, bed for an all-natural mattress and pillows and organic sheets (in other words, you transformed your bed into the kind of healthy nest you’ll never want to leave—wink, wink).

6. Two words: soy candlelight (mood lighting often equals in-the-mood lighting).

5. Preparing healthy, organic, from-scratch meals—with all those local fruits and veggies you bought—is code for “I love you.”

4. Two words: Home Depot (this “happy husband equals happy wife” hang-out has myriad green options).

3. You removed the television from your bedroom to save electricity. Now, when you’re in bed, there are other things you can do . . . like talk.

2. Three words: sexy eco underwear (so you don’t just talk in bed).

1. You’ve got the low-flow showerhead and you’ve reduced your showers to five minutes. To save even more water, you can shower together.

Question of the blog: How has going green improved your relationship?

What the F*ck?

Kevin Hall wrote an article for McClatchy Newspapers about solutions to counteract soaring gasoline prices.

Hall writes that President Bush, on Monday, said we should “increase oil drilling in Alaska and offshore.” This so-called solution is short-term and painfully short-sighted. The author goes on to write that Senator McCain's answers “turn more toward increasing production of oil from offshore and from oil-shale deposits in the mountain West.” Again, short-term and painfully short-sighted.

I’m an independent who could never fathom voting along party lines. I do my research. I ask questions. I vote for the candidate I feel will consider the sum and each individual part. I crossed my fingers as I was reading what Senator Obama said, hoping he can see clearly through what has to be a gas-induced haze. Here’s what Hall wrote:

“Speaking in Raleigh, N.C., Obama on Monday repeated his call for a tax on high oil company profits to fund aid programs for the poorest Americans.

‘I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills,’ he said.

Longer term though, Obama said, the only answers are to increase use of alternative energy—solar, wind, biodiesel, clean-coal technology—and to increase fuel-mileage standards for vehicles and develop hybrid-electric cars, which will take time.”

In all fairness, I wish Senator Obama had been in Washington today when the Senate GOP blocked windfall taxes on Big Oil. [And, shortly after, they blocked another proposal that would have extended the tax breaks that have either expired or are scheduled to end this year for alternative energy development (like solar and wind), and for the promotion of energy efficiency and conservation. Those Republicans must be so proud of what they’re leaving—or, rather, not leaving—future generations.]

That being said, I’m glad Senator Obama sees it’s not the price of gas that's the big-picture problem, but our reliance on gas itself. I drive a hybrid. I honestly can’t tell you the last time I was at the gas station.

Poking holes in Alaska and the mountain West isn’t a solution. It’s the beginning of even more problems. How these men can sleep at night is beyond me. Perhaps they sniff a little gasoline?

Question of the blog: What can those of us who care about the environment do to be heard, and respected, in Washington?