Green Thumbprint grew out of two friends' passion for the environment. Keith and Elise can talk endlessly to each other about a variety of subjects, from recycling to water conservation to growing your own food to big picture ecological issues. But instead of keeping these BRILLIANT discussions to themselves, they thought they would share with the rest of the world!
This website is meant to be partly educational, partly a forum for our impassioned rants, and partly entertaining. We plan to highlight things in need of change--like burning fossil fuels for energy--and celebrate things that make us giddy--like green stormwater infrastructure (bioswales, green roofs, and rain gardens, oh my!). Hopefully we can provide some guidance along the way, such as tips for folks to implement in their daily lives and around the home.
The name "Green Thumbprint" is meant to reflect the fact that both Keith and Elise love gardening and growing their own food (though Elise may be gifted with a much greener thumb), and our awareness about our personal impact on the environment. Hopefully with some consciousness and creativity, we can all have a light, unique touch that leaves the world a little better off than how we found it.
A note from Elise...
Our collective footprint on this planet is huge. It is no
longer the same place that once was, and it never will be again. We as a
species have single-handedly caused the extinction and critical endangerment of
numerous species. We have mixed up the components in ecosystems across the
world and contaminated them. It is a fact that we are destroying and changing
the planet, and much of the life on it. At the same time, as a species, we are
amazing. We have evolved to create art, music, literature, poetry, language,
culture, skyscrapers, airplanes, medicine, and the list goes on. Some of us
care about our own short-term success and power, even at a cost to others and
the environment. Others of us feel loyal to the world we were born into and are
attached to entities that came with us – even those things that do not directly
affect us at all. It is painful to see the rainforests being destroyed and
China’s land and water becoming completely contaminated with toxic substances.
Some of this cannot be undone. This is painful and feeling powerless is not a
good feeling. It can be overwhelming, and easier to just look away. Is it worth
it to expend all of this energy on something that might not make any
significant difference? Is it worth it
if we cannot save the planet forever? Is it really all or nothing? For me, the
answer to all of these questions is “no.” We have created a new world, and it is an undeniably beautiful thing
that as a species we have evolved to care so deeply about a specific bird or
flower that we would devote our lives to saving them. Some things we cannot
stop, but some things we can, or we can slow. We all will die, just as all of
our great great grandparents have died, and our children and great great grandchildren
will die. But life, despite its inevitable end, is still beautiful and worth
living. We can make it as good as possible, while still enjoying life. This,
for me, is what this blog is about.
