The first 18 years of my life were spent in very sunny places. Denver-born, San Diego-raised. I spent the last 4 years back in sunwashed southern California and so the first question I get is how I'm coping with the Seattle weather. Well, truth be told, I lived in New Hampshire and Washington D.C. But when I really give an answer, it's usually this:
"I left the state when it was in drought and on fire, so I absolutely love the rain". And seriously. I mean it.
My favorite link right now is the weather in Seattle. It's an El Nino year not seen since 1997, and I am so excited I just can't hide it. Halfway through December has already had more precipitation than average. Bless.
The more I think about living up here in the PNW (that's the way only Californians like me refer to the Pacific Northwest), the more sustainable it really is. I take a long, hot, guilt-free shower without turning it on/off navy-style in the way that just was never thinkable in California. Which leads me to my theory....
"I left the state when it was in drought and on fire, so I absolutely love the rain". And seriously. I mean it.
My favorite link right now is the weather in Seattle. It's an El Nino year not seen since 1997, and I am so excited I just can't hide it. Halfway through December has already had more precipitation than average. Bless.
The more I think about living up here in the PNW (that's the way only Californians like me refer to the Pacific Northwest), the more sustainable it really is. I take a long, hot, guilt-free shower without turning it on/off navy-style in the way that just was never thinkable in California. Which leads me to my theory....
If you took a long, hot shower on full blast the whole time in LA, the guilt was just so overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, there's LOTS of people who continued to water their lush green lawns this past summer in LA (including the really awesome neighbors of mine in Venice that simply changed their sprinklers to run at midnight so "no one would see". But still all over the sidewalks. Not kidding). Bu that's because LA is la-la-land where the egos of Hollywood exist in living color and in person. It's a city with too high of a douchebag ratio. You have to ignore it the way you do subcultures of weirdness the world over. But I digress... long/hot showers possibilities combined with the greatest installed hydroelectric capacity means WA state is eco energy-wise too. And there's composting across King County. And you can recycle almost everything. All those eco-tips I've held onto since I took my first environmental studies class are pretty moot in these parts. It's amazeballs.
I went to the Net Impact conference which was hosted here in Seattle in early November. One of the keynotes was both the leader of Starbucks and the leader of REI. And in the leadup to the keynote, the moderator noted how impossible it would be to have a company like Starbucks and a co-op like REI be born anywhere else. Living here now, I believe them.
Everyone wants to point to the spotted owls and the forests, and maybe that's the reason. But there's *is* something intangible here that means eco underlies it all. It's in the ethos. Environmental values are a part of everyday life in a way I've never experienced before. Not in Berkeley, not in the progressive westside of LA either.
My current theory is it's all about the rain. Lots of rain and lots of waterways. Nature is all around and in its splendor. Impossible to feel that disconnected or develop nature deficit disorder around here. Bless.
I went to the Net Impact conference which was hosted here in Seattle in early November. One of the keynotes was both the leader of Starbucks and the leader of REI. And in the leadup to the keynote, the moderator noted how impossible it would be to have a company like Starbucks and a co-op like REI be born anywhere else. Living here now, I believe them.
Everyone wants to point to the spotted owls and the forests, and maybe that's the reason. But there's *is* something intangible here that means eco underlies it all. It's in the ethos. Environmental values are a part of everyday life in a way I've never experienced before. Not in Berkeley, not in the progressive westside of LA either.
My current theory is it's all about the rain. Lots of rain and lots of waterways. Nature is all around and in its splendor. Impossible to feel that disconnected or develop nature deficit disorder around here. Bless.
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