Transportation Symposium

Last night, we headed up to campus for a little meeting on transportation options in the Greater Provo area. The talks about bikes and the UTA Ed-Pass that is being discontinued at BYU were informative, but the real awesome stuff for me was about the Church's efforts to "green" their buildings and reduce the impact we as a Church have on the environment. In a nutshell, you can read about everything he talked about in this news article and accompanying video. The keynote speaker was the man mentioned in the article, Jared Doxey. He was so passionate about the environment and the Church's responsibility to reduce impact that my testimony was strengthened more from this meeting than from General Conference. I was so impressed with the effort's being made and the renewed focus on being responsible and conscious stewards of the earth. I think as the Church sets the example, more individual members will follow the lead. Here in the US especially, it is appalling and pretty embarrassing how wasteful we are. We have the highest car ownership per capita in the world, highest carbon emissions per capita, we have more "stuff" than even the most wealthy European nations. Yet, among the richer nations of the world, we have some of the poorest health outcomes with the obesity epidemic, intervention-obsessed maternity care, and ridiculously expensive health care system overall.

I left the meeting with a renewed sense of community and eco-responsibility. We are currently finding bikes to buy, but for now we are walking everywhere. I love it, especially this time of year with the beautiful fall weather and the leaves changing. I also had a renewed commitment to cloth diapering, but that ball is in Tim's court now that he is primary caretaker. I'm also going to improve on taking shorter showers and turning off the water when I wash my hands. Speaking of showers, I can't think of the last time I had one. Hmmm, I think that's a sign of my eco-friendliness... and my lack of personal-hygiene-observance.