Whattya mean, “Green Guest”? According to the dictionary:

Guest: [gest]

1. a person who spends some time at another person's home in some social activity, as a visit, dinner, or party.
2. a person who receives the hospitality of a club, a city, or the like.
3. a person who patronizes a hotel, restaurant, etc., for the lodging, food, or entertainment it provides.

We are all guests on this Blue Planet, and at this point in time, it is our only option for a place to hang our collective hats. To that end, it behooves us to be on our best behavior and not risk being prematurely evicted. So how does being a “Guest” translate in to being a “Green Guest”? Let’s look at the definitions again, this time with an eye towards all things green:

1. a person who spends one lifetime (or more, depending on your spiritual path) living on the surface of Gaia, engaged in living, working, and generally surviving.
2. a person who receives the benefits of the resources from Earth. Resources such as clean water, clean air, plants and animals, and the raw materials to build and create comfortable lives are all gifts from our host, given to us free of charge.
3. a person who utilizes these gifts of the Blue Planet with wise stewardship. As any etiquette expert will tell you, good guests always cleans up after themselves. As Green Guests, we must not only clean up after ourselves, but we must embrace a style of life that drastically reduces the impact we have on our Blue Planet.

I don’t claim to be an expert on environmental issues (yet), or to live a flawlessly carbon-neutral lifestyle. In my attempts to learn more about climate change, I discovered many aspects of our impact upon the environment that I had no idea existed, much less that they were problems of such monumental importance. During a viewing of the documentary, “The 11th Hour”, one of the speakers paraphrased a Deepak Chopra quote by saying, “People are really doing the best they can, given their level of awareness.” And here is where my intentions turn from being interested in learning more about how I can make environmentally conscious changes in my daily life to helping to spread awareness about environmental issues.

There’s scarey stuff out there – news that is sometimes hard to face, with implications that are even harder to ignore. Happily, the good news is becoming more frequent, be it amazing new technology to capture solar and wind power, or proven tips on ways in which we can all be Green Guests. I’ll also be charting the changes to the way my family lives with regards to our impact on the Earth, as well as documenting the quality of the environment of the DC-Metro ecosystem where we currently live and work. I’d love to hear feedback from readers that are implementing their own green changes – please comment here, or send me an email: greenguestblueplanet@gmail.com .

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some lightbulbs to replace. Sphere: Related Content