Maybe it's just me, but it seems as if everybody's trying to out-green one another these days. A woman I was talking to at a restaurant the other night said she's even using Seventh Generation diapers for her baby. I don't know about you, but that seems like one really old diaper.But such is the pressure to reduce, reuse and recycle.
As an apartment-dwelling single with nary a dependent, I can't brag about how I use cardboard diapers for my kids. Nor can I point to the energy-efficient appliances I've purchased for my solar-powered yurt, or wax sanctimonious about my backyard worm bin (I'd install one in the kitchen but my lease says no pets).
But I can do one thing to keep from being completely left in the eco-dust. It's called green dating.
Green dating officially got its start about five years ago, around the same time niche sites like LargeFriends.com and EquestrianSingles.com began cropping up faster than recycling ordinances in the city of Seattle.
GreenSingles.com, a personal-connection site for people in the environmental, vegetarian and animal-rights communities, probably has been around the longest, hooking up singles who share a "global consciousness influenced by holistic philosophies, green politics and a willingness to explore the mind, body and spirit" (i.e., tree-huggers looking for love) since 1985.
A quick search through the site - "made with 100 percent recycled electrons!" - yielded me 71 potential dates in the greater Seattle area (I'm thinking global, but dating local), including a marine biologist, a musical gardener and some guy who lives on a permaculture farm in the woods. (Does that mean he grows pot?)
Over at Green-Passions.com, brought to you by the same folks who created StachePassions, MulletPassions and TruckerPassions (what, no TrailerParkPassions?), I didn't have nearly as much luck. My search netted only four eco-friendly singles in my area, plus the site kept crashing every time I tried to check out the guys' profiles.
Not that it really mattered. Butted up next to each match was a large ad for a hot pink waterless composting toilet. I'm all for saving water and everything, but talk about a buzz kill (not to mention a not-so-subtle reminder that my love life was in the crapper).
Undaunted, I plowed ahead and soon found a handful of other sites where a green - or even celery-colored - single could find a sustainable soul mate.
DemocraticSingles.net ponied up 86 matches from a pool of more than 25,000 environmentally and politically aware mates, including one guy interested in "trees, mountains, sex, wild birds and conversation" (or was that conservation?). Earth Wise Singles (ewsingles.com) gave me 21 candidates, among them a tall slender sensualist into environmental design and another guy hoping to find someone who likes to garden naked.
Let's hope he doesn't keep raspberries.
EthicalSingles.com is a matchmaking portal for people concerned about human rights, animal rights, pollution, global warming, genetic engineering, organic farming, timber sourcing, circus animals and a slew of other topics you'll never hear discussed on Fox News.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single ethical date in my area. At least not until I widened my search criteria by 60 years, lied about my home state and switched my sexual preference. None of which felt exactly, well, ethical.
Dateless but undampened, I surfed over to GreenSpeedDating.com, which touts itself as a new way for singles to find "carbon neutral love." Only around for a matter of months, the L.A.-based Web site recently held its first event in Santa Monica in which 16 singles hiked, biked, bused and (gasp!) drove to a bar for complimentary fruits and veggies and a raft of three-minute minidates.
Although there was nothing on the calendar for Seattle, singles across the country are encouraged to set up their own GSD events (just go to the site and click on the appropriate link). Not only will you up your chances of finding the low-impact love of your life, your $25 fee will go into a fund designed to take solar energy to rural Nicaragua.
And there are greener pastures yet.
In June, Portland's Pedalpalooza sponsored a "bicycle speed dating" event, drawing 40 single cyclists in all their helmet-haired glory. Here at home, there's SeattleGreenDrinks.org, a big green monster of a gathering held the second Tuesday of each month (for those who don't like crowds, there's the more intimate Green Lunches).
Although the group isn't a singles organization per se, there's plenty of environmentally savvy eye candy plus lots of opportunity for, if you'll pardon the expression, icebreakers ("Soooo Â… are you as concerned about toxic sex toys as I am?")
As for me, I may decide to join one of the eco-dating sites (many offer free or discounted memberships to those who donate to green causes) or spend some quality time discussing all things organic over a biodegradable cup of green beer.
Then again I may decide to simply stick to the basics: reduce, reuse, recycle.
Surely I have to have at least one old boyfriend I can ease back into the dating picture. Heck, I've recycled before; why quibble about doing it now when resources are so tight?
Or maybe I'll ask around to see if anyone in my circle of friends has discarded some perfectly good soul mate. Instead of letting him just go to waste, I can pick him up, dust him off and see if he wants to get eco-friendly. The two of us can ditch the car (relatively easy for me since I don't have one), skip the wasteful wining and dining and go for a nice long (trash-collecting) walk on the beach.
Who knows? If we like the cut of each other's carbon footprint, we might even come back to my place for a quick game of spin the recyclable bottle.