We realized today that we have been working on this blog for several months now, and still had not done a great job explaining who we are and why we care about all this green stuff. So, here is a little background about us and why we are interested in making the world a greener place
Aaron Midgett:
I work in the solar renewable energy field and have always loved being outside, either with my dog or doing some adventure sport, so environmental research and new technological design has always been important to me.
I grew up in the mountain of NC and spent most of my childhood living outside, catching salamanders and learning about edible plants. My parents were hippies back in the day, so I was home schooled for 1st-3rd grade, had the advantage of growing up on organic beans a rice (back before organic was cool) and occasionally going to earth skills workshops. If you have never heard of an earth skills workshop, it is basically a gathering of people who want to live more simply, learn to live of the land, and take care of themselves in the wilderness using a lot of Native American techniques. This meant that growing up, my family built a full size teepee, made our own bows and arrows, collected chanterelle mushrooms in the woods behind my house and learned how to start a fire in the middle of a rainstorm without matches (I was never very good at that last one though).
When I went off to college, my love of the outdoors was fully cemented and while I studied BioChemistry, I also worked for the outdoor department leading whitewater kayaking, backpacking and climbing trips. I loved this job and spent a good portion of my college life outside. My favorite part of leading these trips was seeing how typical suburban teenagers changed once they were outside fending for themselves. Usually the first day without showering, or going to the bathroom in the woods got to a lot of them, but after two or three days the change was dramatic. Even the guys who spent the entire day in front of the playstation, or the girls who had never gone a day without putting on makeup stepped up and made incredible strides in both their abilities and attitude. By the end of a week long trip, I was able to just sit back and enjoy these youngsters while they cooked me dinner and set up the tents.
I only mention these trips because they made me realize the awesome power that nature has to break people down to their most fundamental pieces while imparting a sense of self confidence and strength that is not as prevalent as it should be. Seeing these effects only strengthened my resolve to help educate people about the earth and protect this amazing resource that we have.
I am getting my PhD in chemistry and solar energy, because I want to do something that I can feel proud of, and maybe if I am lucky make an impact with. My wife and I try to live our lives keeping the environment in mind, but I will be the first to admit that we have a long way to go and are learning all the time. As much as I would love to have no impact on the earth, I am not able to do that right now, but I am always working towards that goal. This blog is a way that I can share some of the things that I learn and live every day with the world. I just hope that I can inspire a few people to take advantage of the great outdoors and protect the resources that we are so lucky to have.
Steve Wager:
If you discount the two pine tree saplings I brought home from elementery school in the 1970’s, my introduction into making positive change in my environmental impact came in 1999 when I was laid off from the last job I had that involved a commute. Since then I’ve been a house-form desk jockey and I’ve gone from driving 20k miles year to less then 10k – and that’s with shareing a car with my wife.
Now I am a car guy, and my love of the environment is at odds with my love of machines that go. I mitigated that little hiccup in 2003 when my wife and I had the unbelievable fortune of qualifing for a very special program in Asheville, NC that produced affordable LEEDS certified homes within the city center. According to one estimate of the program, living in this house saves an amount of energy per month this is roughly equivilent to dozens of car commutes and in looking at our heating and cooling costs, I believe it.
Rest assured, I’m going to purchase the first plug-in hybrid I can get my underemployed hands on, but in the mean time, I’m going to do my best to not muck up this incredible opportuninty by turning a non-blind eye on the rest of our impacts. Having taken the teeth out of the worst elements of our pollution, I’ve been focusing on cleaning up my eating habits. I’m concerned about my health of course but I’m also concerned about where my food dollars are going. In particular, we’ve opted out of the processed animal-feed corn based existence that is at the root of America’s obesity epidemic. If you’re a Creationist, you might want to learn about how feed lots are in conflict with His design of the cow.
In taking part in the Greener Truth, I’ve come to realize that Greenwashing is a big problem and that it’s also part of a much larger problem. Turns out it’s really very easy to manipulate well intentioned, hard working people into believing just about anything you want if you have enough money to spend on how you craft the message. Just throw the word ‘death’ in there and most people will cow-tail to anything the weathliest 2% of Americans desire. Watching your fellow countrymen donate their liberty to the school yard bully is a heart-breaker but the good news is, once the veil has been lifted it’s awfully hard to nail it back in place. If this world is ever going to know peace, we’re all going to have to figure out when we’re being lied to and maybe even go that one step further and take responsibility for the lies we believe and support.
When I’m not at my desk, you’ll find me enjoying the outdoors here in beautiful Western North Carolina. Hiking, canoing, sailing… sitting. I volunteer with the Bob Moog Foundation and play an Analog Synthesizer. When I am at my desk I contribute to blogs and provide web marketing services to a number of local small businesses.
