Lesson 1: Reduce

So I started to think, when I was working at my job in conservation, that probably just by recycling or starting a recycling project in your own community, you could make just as important a difference as I could make at my job. That is not terrible. My personal philosophy is that our most important actions (unless you hold a very influential position) are in our private lives, not our professional lives.

I digress. The point is that "glamorous" is not key when it comes to conservation. It can be a tool to make conservation more attractive, but the key is conservation itself. And conservation is nothing more than a fancy word for "keep" or "save." Another nice catchphrase is "Reduce, reuse, recycle."

As you may notice from what you have read so far, I was not well versed in the concept of "Reduce, reuse recycle" when I first became active in conservation work. And I did not yet understand that the emphasis is in that order. You start by reducing your needs. Which is hardly a glamorous concept.