Ginny Figlar Colón

I don’t like calling myself an environmentalist, because I know there is so much more I could be doing. I think a better title would be something like “simplist.” I do try to live a simpler, more sustainable life. My husband and I both have degrees in environmental sciences (mine are in environmental sciences and environmental journalism) and I worked for Greenpeace for awhile. These things help when analyzing more complex issues like a wine’s true environmental impact or the carbon footprint of organic produce. But most of the time, taking the eco-path is something that just comes from the gut. It helps that we live in a very environmentally friendly country right now — Sweden (though we hail from Colorado). We also recently had our first child, which has taken our eco-mindedness up a notch. Life keeps getting better … and greener.

The French motto is “C’est la vie.” But when the glass jars, aluminum cans and plastic bottles started adding up during our holiday vacation in Paris last week, my conscience said otherwise.

Apparently I have upset the appliance gods. Right before Thanksgiving, the dryer stopped drying anything. And then right after Thanksgiving, the refrigerator started freezing everything.

I did the math in my head. We have one car that barely gets driven, a TV and DVD player that get unplugged when not in use, plus a diet free of meat — and I have to admit that I was feeling a bit overconfident when I plugged my numbers into the carbon calculator at www.carbonfootprint.com.

Nice … half-frozen veggie scraps molded together in a solid mass. Not exactly what I want to see in my compost bin. With at least five more months of cold weather before warmth and sunshine reappear, why do I even bother keeping the pile going?

Me and my veggie scraps