Photodisc
DCL
While being good is good, it's never good enough. You can always be more good, or as people with correct grammar like to say, better. You'll find that most people, no matter where they are from, regardless of background, sexual orientation, religion, class, ethnicity or creed are pretty much the same. They'll tell you this: "I just want myself, my friends and my family to be safe."
You'll learn that all the small differences such as political views, philosophical differences and social code are all just means to that end. For example, person A might say, "I am a fiscal conservative and believe that the government should not socialize health care, because I believe my family will get better care without government interference." And person B might says. 'I am a fiscally liberal and believe that the government should socialize health care because my family is certain to get health care that way." (I am aware that these arguments are more complex.)
Both people seem at opposite points of the political spectrum, however, their ends are similar. They both want to protect their family from illness. Everyone just wants their family to be safe. Just remember that when you have to deal with folks who don?t agree with you.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. And yes, there are probably people who want to make their kids wear shoes on their head and juggle chainsaws or other such nonsense for no reason we can surmise, but for the most part, the rule is true.
What most people can agree on is that we have to take care of the planet. Even if you don't believe in climate change for some reason, you can't argue the fact that our resources are limited or that you can't drink polluted water or that life would be bad without trees. Eco-friendliness is in everyone's best interest, and really so is regular friendliness.
With that long-winded logically garbled intro, I bring you 5 ways in which friendliness lends itself to eco-friendliness.
1.Roommates If you are able to get along with another human being who shares a roof with you, it will save you quite a bit of dough. (Cut your rent in half.) But it will also reduce the in-house, per-capita energy for each roommate. Even if your roommate is wasteful, you'll still manage to help the planet.
2.Carpooling If you are able to get along with a few people on your way to work, you'll be able to reduce emissions. 98% of a worker's carbon footprint comes from their commute. If you carpool with 3 others, you'll cut that number into fourths. (Give or take. I'm not compensating for added weight to the car or out-of-the-way stops.) If you're a friendly individual, you are sure to increase the likelihood of your carpool's success.
3.Sharing Everyone should have learned to share in kindergarten. If you can share with at least one other person, you?ll manage to save money and help the planet. If you can share little-used items with a neighbor like wood chippers, leaf mulchers, swimming pools, trampolines, post-hole diggers you can borrow back and forth from each other and reduce the need to manufacture more wood chippers, leaf mulchers, swimming pools and trampolines. For stuff like swimming pools, you'll use half as much water and half as much electricity as two people. Frost said that "Good fences make good neighbors," but a shared swimming pool makes better neighbors.
Clothing swaps, gift exchanges and bringing your neighbors some leftovers are in the best interest of everyone. There are a variety of product service systems out there to help you share! 4.Inspiration If you can win people over with a smile, you can win people over to your way of thinking. If you're a bully or a jerk, you're not going to convince many people to be like you. Take a look at that Bill O'Reilly. Now, I'm not going to argue about his beliefs. That's not the point. I will say that O'Reilly is a bully. I don't care what his views are because he's so mean. However, it is his job to be that way. That's how he entertains people and gets people to pay attention, and he is very good at his job. He's worked out a niche for himself in this world and he deserves what he has, but I don't think he's very good at convincing people over to his way of thinking. He enrages those who have differing views. (That keeps people watching and talking about him. I'm even talking about him right now.) His behavior is great if you?re a political shock jock. Most of us are not. The best way to win people over is to see things from the other person's perspective. And just try to remember that they are probably after the same end as you. If you're kind and persuasive, you can influence people not to drive a gas-guzzling car or to recycle or to do myriad other green activities. 5.Magnanimousness In the Nicomachean Ethics, Artistotle called magnanimousness the crowning virtue, because it arose from all those other virtues. To be magnanimous, you must be brave, you must act nobly and generously and refuse to be petty. Those are all hard things to do. Like rubbing my belly and patting my head, I can only manage one at a time. If you can act magnanimously, you will be more likely to volunteer for ecological causes, donate to environmental charities and be patient with people who are less than magnanimous who may have something that you want. Remember, you don't have to be a saint, but being a decent human is always a good idea.
