Ecofrugality in the time of Covid

This past week, it's seemed like there was only one story in the news. It was all coronavirus, all the time. Every day brought new reports on the number of infections, the number of deaths, the precautions various countries and parts of this country have taken against it, the effect it's having on the economy, and the wildly conflicting messages coming out of Washington about how we're dealing with it. I've received emails from my doctor, my assemblywoman, my bank and other financial companies, my auto insurer, the local library, the town government, the local business association, grocery stores, and Starbucks, all telling me how they're responding to the virus and what they think I should do.

Brian and I were trying to live as normally as possible through all this, but it's become more and more difficult. On Tuesday, a member of our Morris dance team proposed "pausing" all practices of our group — which has only seven people in total, doing a form of dance that involves no physical contact — for "a month or so" until we "see how things play out." On Wednesday, Brian got sent home early and instructed to work from home until further notice. The same day, I got notice that the monthly meeting of the Citizens' Climate Lobby (a group pushing for the climate bill I wrote about back in January) was canceled, though we could still stream the monthly group call online. On Thursday, the Troubadour, a concert series I coordinate volunteers for, canceled its Friday concert. And today, I got word that all upcoming shows had been canceled through the end of April. Normal life, in short, has been suspended until further notice.

However, the first inkling I got that this outbreak would affect my ability to maintain my ecofrugal habits came a week ago, when we stopped into a Starbucks (which is still operating for now) and the barista told me I wouldn't be able to use my nifty reusable cup. Apparently, it's considered too much of a health risk for the staff to handle these. (I was at least able to use my own straw, since no one else had to touch that.)

This got me wondering how much the Covid-19 crisis, and the precautions being taken against it, would affect ecofrugal behavior for America in general. Will the virus reduce our carbon footprint or enlarge it? Make us more wasteful with money, or less so? And will any of those changes last once the outbreak is over (whenever that may be)?

Right now, the virus is definitely causing some changes in behavior — some good, others not so good. Fewer people are flying, which is definitely good for the climate. People are also avoiding mass transit, which could be either good or bad. If they're all going to the same places, but by car, that's bad, but if they're simply staying in more — working from home, socializing less — that's good for the climate (though not so great for our mental and emotional health). People buying and using lots of disposable face masks (which won't actually do them any good if they're not sick) is a definite downside. People doing more of their shopping online, including grocery shopping? Probably a good thing on the whole, since the increased packaging waste is offset by reduced emissions from transportation.

As for whether these changes will last, the San Francisco Chronicle hazards a guess that at least some of them will stick around for the long term. One expert they interviewed predicted that once people will get in the habit of buying online, they'll keep doing it (especially since that's a behavior that was already on the rise). Others speculated that telecommuting "may become our new normal" in jobs that allow for it, and "virtual conferences" could take the place of big annual conferences that people have to travel to by air so they can hobnob in person.

For us personally, this outbreak has probably made us a little bit more ecofrugal, on balance, than we were just a week ago. Brian is no longer driving to work, so that's lowered our carbon footprint a bit; we also won't be driving to any concerts at the Troubadour in the next month and a half, and may or may not be driving to Morris practice. (We agreed to cancel this week's practice and take it on a week-by-week basis after that.) We're mostly staying at home, except for a few shopping trips, which haven't really been more frequent than usual; in fact, we've deliberately avoided making a Costco run, since the place is probably even more of a madhouse than usual on account of all the panic buying people are doing right now. We're probably using a bit more electricity with two computers going instead of one, and with the TV running more nights than usual because we're stuck at home — but since all our electricity comes from renewable sources anyway, that hasn't increased our carbon footprint. And our other ecofrugal behaviors — gardening, hanging laundry, eating a low-carbon diet, and so forth — haven't been affected, and we have no reason to think they will be.

All the same, we're not eager to continue these new, more ecofrugal behaviors once the Powers That Be decide the danger is past. Shrinking our carbon footprint is all well and good, but being cut off from all face-to-face contact with friends and family is really too high a price to pay.