Celebrating tomorrows International Womens Day I want to especially celebrate my good old friend Molina Gosch, author of ´Liebe Erde – 33 Briefe, um unsere Welt zu schützen`.
We know each other from our year abroad in the USA in 2005. We never met before but became friends. Two strangers share one life experience. For me the environmental behaviors of the United States were quite shocking but for Molina it must have been hell.
I remember when I wanted to recycle old batteries and my host dad told me to throw everything in one bag. I asked him “Are you sure this goes all into one bag?” He looked at me and said: “We are Americans we don´t care about the environment.” I was 18 years old back then. I did what they said. All of the things I questioned at the first place I did them later myself. Letting the car run while waiting, using plastic dishes for dinner, wasting energy and so on. The list would be endless. When I came back to Germany it was so hard to get rid of all these bad behaviors. My mom had a lot of work to do to teach me how to recycle again 😉
Thinking of Molina back then it makes me very proud. One day she wanted to see the movie of Al Gore so badly. And we were too americanized, busy with shopping and eating out, that we just don´t wouldn´t want to come with her. She went alone! You know what this means to a young woman going her own way, no matter what even her friends think?This is so strong! My problems back then were turning around other things but not our lovely earth. Molina was so excited when she came back from that movie. And we didn´t even really listening to her. But why?
For me, caring about the environment, recycling and saving water was part of my whole childhood in the 90´s. We learned in school how to save the world. I remember even an homework, were we had to notice how much water we use each day and how we could save more water. When ´Fridays for future´came up I was thinking “We did that already. What happened in between?” My mother used to wash every plastic bag after using it from freezing vegetables to use it again. Taking a fabric bag for shopping is as normal for her as not throwing away food. If she would become an influencer she could tell all of us how to do it right. But when started this that we forgot to save and admire things? Now it feels like we need to be educated again.
Top 10 of my mom´s environmental tipps:
- reusing every plastic bag (even as a trash bag)
- never ever throw away food
- cook by yourself
- plant your own vegetables/fruits (if possible)
- walk! Let the car in the garage. (My mom is refueling only twice a year)
- buy second hand clothes
- turn off every electric device if not using
- repair things instead of throwing them away
- Think before you buy anything if you really need it
- Save water
I could keep going with this list but I hope you know what Iam trying to say. She is doing all this things total naturally. No one told her what to do. She is saving the environment by just doing what she does. No new trend is needed. She doesn´t need to become an climate protester. She does way better than all of the rest of us.
Molina is also one of that woman who just does what needs to be done. She is fighting to save our planet with nothing more to achieve than more consciousness in our heads. I love her book and I hope there is an english version upcoming soon. Or let´s say an version in every language of the world. My favorite letter is the one of Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen. Not because he is famous but it reminds me of my mom and myself. Is there anything more we can do as ´little people´? Politics and economy need to take steps forward. Of course I can buy joghurt in a glas and save plastic but I cannot stop factories to produce what they produce. We need a little help down here…
Iam not into politics at all but I admire Molina for her perseverance. It seems to become better than years ago. As we travelled to the USA in 2019, there was a whole new view of things then back in 2005. Of course you still got 100 plastic bags at the cashier of Walmart with just buying two things. But there where parts where people said thank you for not taking a bag or a coupon. I think we are getting there. We are on track for a better world. Thanks to people like Molina who inspire us and educate us. Hopefully it´s not too late for our lovely earth. Let´s give her a huge hug every day :-*
Belladonna Mira 