You are Generation Green!

When I was a kid, I didn’t know that we were more environmentally conscious—greener—than my friends’ families. I just thought everybody lived like we did, and there weren’t a whole lot of other people around to tell me otherwise. From age four until I was nine my parents raised me in the woods in northern New Mexico, where we lived on hundreds of acres of raw land. My folks built our house themselves, which was 100 percent solar-powered. (Mom even juiced her laptop from the sun.) We lived “off the grid,” meaning we weren’t connected to the electrical system or public utilities. We didn’t need an alarm clock; we just went to sleep after it got dark and woke up with the sun. It was so far away from everything that friends always got lost trying to find us down the maze of dirt roads. I loved it, even though we had so few of the things most kids take for granted—working toilets, indoor heating, phones, trash pickup, a dishwasher. If we wanted water, we couldn’t just turn on a faucet; we had to catch it from the roof—did you know you can save one hundred fifty gallons from a single summer afternoon’s storm?—or lug it in five-gallon jugs from a well a quarter of a mile away. Water was so precious we’d even catch the morning dew in our tank.

As a five-year-old I used to help my folks chop up dead wood for heat with a small ax. That was a blast, and I never even got a nick. When my friends visited, Mom would take us on treasure hunts, looking for deer and moose tracks, and arrowheads. That was all great, but I had to use an outhouse for forever, which was a total drag. We had empty jars stored under the kitchen sink that we used for those “late night” emergencies when I didn’t want to go outside in the pitch-dark and walk the thirty feet in the freezing cold to use the outhouse. And without a heater (can you say 22 degrees in the living room at three a.m.?) if I used one of those jars in the middle of the night in the wintertime, by morning the contents were often frozen. Okay, pretty gross, I know. T.M.I.

Living in a forest and being so close to nature changes you. I used to run for hours in the woods with my siblings—ha, really my pack of dogs—so townspeople called me Mowgli the Jungle Boy. Sometimes I’d put newborn puppies into my pockets to keep them warm while I went out walking in the snow. Life in New Mexico taught me so many things. Like how precious our natural resources are. You become a homegrown expert in low-impact living because being even a little wasteful in that environment feels all wrong—like wearing a tuxedo to a hip-hop concert. Some things just don’t go together.

We bought our land from a Native-American medicine man who lived in a small makeshift cabin nearby. We lived next to his tepee and his inepi—an igloo-shaped contraption where he did these amazing sweat lodge ceremonies. The medicine man taught us to “walk lightly” on Mother Earth and ponder the thoughts of plants and rocks, “who had seen so much.” He taught us to think about how everything we do affects future generations—perhaps the most important lesson passed down to him from his elders. It’s easier to learn that lesson when you’re surrounded by grass and brown earth and can literally see your own footprints.

We saw so many different approaches to caring for the earth in rural New Mexico—but also so many contradictions. The medicine man said that he wanted nothing but a can of beans every day and a tepee to live in, and that he dreamed of going totally back to nature—but when he got a gas generator, he always had his TV blaring the news. The consique (tribal spiritual leader) of the Taos Pueblo, “Grampa” Pete Concha, told us he feared for our safety every time we went to “the outworld”—Los Angeles, where Mom and Dad had to go for work (Mom’s a writer and Dad’s an actor). But wasn’t our favorite city also sacred by just being part of the earth? I was confused. When we first moved to New Mexico, the locals didn’t immediately trust our good intentions, calling us “Hollywood” and “Easy Money” and “Indian Wannabes.” We had to work hard to fit in and convince them that we cared about the land and their ways as much as they did. Sometimes it felt like we were living in two worlds.

When I was in fourth grade, we moved back to a suburb of Los Angeles so my dad could be closer to his acting auditions and Mom could do press for her first book. Then I really did have to figure out how to live in two worlds!...

Let’s face it, when we turn on the tap, we want to get clean water every time, not something that looks like a cross between green tea yogurt and coffee sludge. When we flick the switch, we want power for our lights, video games, and TVs. When we turn the key in the ignition, we expect the car to roar to life. We’re locked into so many systems to live our busy lives. It’s like we live in a big machine made up of a zillion parts, and they all have to work together or the machine will break down or, worse yet, grind to a complete halt. We depend on our green machine, the environment for so much more than the conveniences we take for granted; we don’t seem to truly appreciate that our earth’s health and our own health are completely connected. When the earth gets sick, we get sick too.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of evidence that our green machine is breaking down and that the earth is getting sicker. Each year seems to bring on more dramatic natural events—surpassing all previous records. A heat wave in Europe in the summer of 2003 killed thirty-five thousand people. The December 26, 2004, tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed more than three hundred thousand people. Hurricane Katrina was seven times more destructive than any other natural storm in our history, and killed more than eighteen hundred people. The Southern California wildfires of October 2007 forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes—making it the largest evacuation in California history.

The planet seems to be running a fever, too. The year 2005 was the warmest year in recorded history—until 2006, which became the warmest year on record—until 2007, which quickly surpassed 2006 as of April, and then continued throughout December as the warmest year on record.

Maybe you’re thinking, Hey, that’s okay. I like warm weather, so what’s the problem? Those higher temperatures are causing animal and plant extinctions; failed crops; lower water tables; drying wells, creeks, and rivers; disappearing lakes; a decrease in snowpack and glaciers worldwide; and longer, scarier fire seasons.

It’s a big world, but we’re using it up. Georgia had such a severe water shortage in the fall of 2007 that the governor led a prayer vigil for rain. (Our Native-American friends weren’t at all surprised when the state got rain the next day.) In fact, water shortages are an international crisis. We’re destroying our rain forests so quickly that if we don’t do something fast, by 2030 there will be only 10 percent of them left. Even the skies over our heads are disappearing with the depletion of the ozone layer. What’s the deal here?

With all the evidence that our green machine is breaking down, is it too late to fix it? It’s easy to think that all our global problems are so big that there’s no solution, so why even bother to do anything? We’ll tell you why: because people are identifying what’s causing the problems, they are finding solutions, the solutions are working, and individuals like you do make a difference.

The key here is that we all need to think big—be part of a large national or international effort—and think small—act more thoughtfully and locally as individual teens. One person can and does make a difference—but think of how much more powerful and effective we’ll be when we pull together! It all starts with understanding how, why, and where the green machine is breaking down.

This chapter will give you the basic lowdown on some of the most important issues affecting our planet, followed by a sampling of the kinds of innovative solutions people are employing to fix these problems. We think that if you have the inside scoop on what’s going wrong and what it’ll take to turn it around, you’ll be more pumped about trying some of the suggestions to come. If you want to delve even deeper into any of these topics, we’ve listed some of our favorite books in the Resources section at the back of this book.

Is your head exploding yet? That’s a good sign—means you’re still with us. You could probably use a few more visuals with all of the suggestions we’ve given you, so this chapter’s all about putting together everything we’ve talked about. Sound good? We’ll start by walking you through a normal day, first as a “typical” teen would do it, and then we’ll show a rewind with greener choices instead—using our green, greener, and greenest headings to give you creative options. (We heart choices!) Try making up your own. Some of ours will seem cheesy or silly or too idealistic—for us, too—but they’re meant to get you thinking in your own green style. No matter how you choose to green up your day, let these examples reinforce the idea that all of your days are filled with hundreds of big and small chances to be green, and they all count!

Waking Up:

Typical
Your alarm next to your bed blares. You hit the snooze button a few times and then make your way to the bathroom, ignoring the need to rush as you lumber into the hot steam-filled shower. Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty gallons and twenty minutes later, Dad knocks to warn that you’re late. You slather on soap or body wash, then shampoo, stopping to glance at the ingredients—what are some of these names? The list reminds you of chemistry class. You’ve heard that some beauty products can be toxic, but hey, the smells are off the hook. You rinse off a few more minutes—man that hot water is addictive! You get out, dry off with a synthetic towel, and throw it onto the floor. You brush your teeth with the latest fresh-breath-whitening-formula paste and let the water run while you check yourself out in the mirror from all angles. Hmmm . . . Would the Katie Holmes new glam-chic haircut look dope or dorky on me? You massage your face and body with lotion you bought at the pharmacy that promises an acne-free dewy complexion, a future without wrinkles, and a sun-kissed glow without the sun—a miracle in a jar. You roll on a sweat-and-odor-stomping deodorant and an intoxicating perfume—a fragrance you bought at the mall for cheap, cheap but that smells like you paid the big bucks.

Green
Your alarm across the room blares. You shut it off and then head into the bathroom. You take a five-minute shower and brush your teeth at the same time as you rinse your hair, careful not to get shampoo into your mouth! Your new organic soap and shampoo smell fresh and rinse clean. You get out, dry off with an organic cotton towel, and hang it back up to dry. On your body you rub in lavender-scented paraben-free lotion from Whole Foods or Wild Oats, and on your face you use Trader Joe’s oil-free face version. You apply talc-free mineral face powder and toxin-free mascara and lip gloss—all of which you’ve researched on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website at www.safecosmetics.org to. (Just because you’re a green teen doesn’t mean you can’t still be a lip-gloss-aholic like Linda! You just have to know the safe brands to choose from.) It’s going to be a hot day, so you use your aluminum-chlorohydrate-free deodorant.

Greener
Your alarm across the room goes off. You get out of bed, turn it off, stretch, and make your way into the bathroom, where you determine that you’re pretty clean from yesterday’s five-minute shower, so today will just be a quick rinse-off instead. That takes all of about one minute. You dry off with a 100 percent organic cotton or bamboo towel and hang it back up to dry. You pull out the health-food-store brand toothpaste and see if you can brush with fewer than four swigs of water from the cup sitting on the sink. . . . Yup. Easy breezy. You forgo your old fragrance (the one you recently found out contains phthalates—linked to cancer) and dab on a vanilla-scented essential oil instead. You’re smelling mighty sweet! Your eco-friendly lotions, makeup, and deodorant, and a quick brush through your hair, leave you looking prom-ready. Okay, that’s a stretch. But at least ready for first period.

Greenest
Your cell phone alarm across the room chimes. You get out of bed, turn it off, and make sure your solar charger is unplugged for the day. You head to the bathroom, where you determine that you’re all good from yesterday’s five-minute shower, so today’ll just be a quick sponge bath and face splash before getting ready. At only three swigs of water while brushing your teeth, you’ve beaten yesterday’s water usage; you smile knowing you just hit your personal best. You’ve been living and eating clean so your complexion looks fab and you don’t sense the need for deodorant. The only thing left to do is dab on a little eco-lotion and vitamin E lip balm to keep your kisser . . . well, kissable. Oh, and you throw your hair up in a fun, flirty ponytail. Now you’re good to go, gorgeous!