greenboatblog.com

Kermit the frog got it right. It’s not easy being green.

Several factors will most likely confront you should you choose to adopt green boating.

Probably the biggest challenge to being green these days is cost. A jug of the cheapest generic cleaning product will be cheaper to buy than organic soap. But will it really be cheaper to use? I’m not talking dollars here, but rather the true cost of using a product that will shine up your boat for a few days only to linger in the water, infiltrating the aquatic food supply and possibly leading to algae blooms,  dead zones, and even genetic mutations in fish? I know this sounds extreme, but according to numerous scientific experts this may be exactly what happens when traditional household cleaners build up in our waterways.

If, instead of just looking at the dollars and cents your store receipt says your petroleum-based boat soap cost, we could look at the big picture receipt, what would we find? What is the real cost to the environment when the toxins in that soap go over the side once you rinse down your decks? What are the true energy costs - both in actual production and shipping charges as well as greenhouse gases created - to manufacture and distribute that soap? What are the medical, social, and moral costs associated with the health problems the 12 year old Asian kid has from working in the factory where it was made? What damage was caused producing the plastic bottle your soap came in and how many generations will deal with that same bottle?

Now examine what it really costs for an adult worker to make a highly effective boat soap from chemical free, organic ingredients in a fair-labor factory in the USA, using renewable energy and recycled packaging material.

Which costs more? You decide. Unfortunately, organic soap will force you to open your wallet a little wider than if you buy the harmful stuff. In so many meaningful ways, though, the organic stuff is a real bargain.

Another reason Kermit was right involves the emotional cost of being green. If your experience is anything like mine, you will very likely pass through three distinct phases on this journey.

First, you are going to feel a little weird if this stuff is new to you. Carrying your own grocery bags into the store, asking your waiter if the salmon is wild or farmed, and trying to explain your new way of doing things to your ultra conservative friends or family members will take a bit of a toll. Remember though, it is time to act like grown-ups.

If you care enough to read this blog, you will probably read other stuff, or you already have. Once you educate yourself about what is really happening in the Ocean and elsewhere it is easy to become consumed by feelings of dread and hopelessness. Species extinction, fisheries collapse, climate change, babies –both human and not- born with compromised immune systems, and increasingly toxic food supplies are just a few of the heavy topics you will likely encounter if you choose to go green.

Getting past these harsh realities requires a simple do-what-you-can approach.  It is just not realistic to expect that anger and education will solve these problems on their own. The key to lasting change lies in modifying the behavior of those causing the trouble. If, after starting down the sustainable path you find yourself adopting some of the ideas put forward then you will be part of the solution. One person in a marina doing the right thing that leads to three others and then ten more following suit really can make a difference.

Finally, once you get past stages one and two something remarkable starts to happen. Now I don’t mean to get all new age here, but there really is an emotional reward from being green.

The look my teenage daughter gave me when I told her I had joined Greenpeace was priceless. At first I think she thought the old man had lost his mind, now our dinner table conversations routinely turn to the environment - how cool is that?