Living the word

Ed Begley Jr. is showing us all that “living country in the city” is not only the wave of the future, but also the solution to our many modern woes.

Begley’s early interest in environmentalism began in his youth as a Boy Scout living on
Long Island.

“Being in the Boy Scouts set the stage for my appreciation of the outdoors,” Begley said in a recent interview.

Eventually, however, he moved back to California, and he recalls the terrible smog of the late 1960s and early ’70s, along with the desire to somehow be a part of the solution.

“Perhaps the seminal moment for me was seeing that famous photo of the earth shot from the Apollo spacecraft,” he recalls. “I saw this beautiful blue, watery planet, and I saw the earth as a unique place. I saw the earth as a system. That picture moved me, as I’m sure it moved a lot of people.”

Driven to take personal action, Begley got his first electric car and, in the 1970s, began making compost from his kitchen scraps.

“I was living in an apartment at the time and I would actually take kitchen scraps in a bag to a vacant lot nearby. I would bury my scraps there in my own little compost pile. As I returned again and again, that little spot where I buried my compost became green and lush,” he says, a big smile spreading across a face that has been known to American audiences over the several decades.

Today, Begley has become a spokesman for environmental issues, both officially and unofficially. He shares his environmentally conscious lifestyle on his “Living With Ed” TV show. And he also produced a guidebook to environmental living called “Living Like Ed.”

In this book, he and his lovely wife Rachelle share their easy and some not-so-easy ways to live an environmentally sound lifestyle. The book covers the six areas of our lives where we can save money, help the environment and save energy: home, transportation, recycling, energy, garden and kitchen, and clothing and skin care. (This excellent volume is available at edbegley.com, or at any bookstore).

He lives on an average, well-kept, tree-lined street in Southern California suburbia. Entering his yard, you see something is a little different. Each bush, shrub, tree and plant is edible, medicinal, or simply fragrant. In the backyard, Begley adjusts his solar oven and then sits down to enjoy his fresh-picked mint tea.

Above him, on the roof, is an array of 117 solar panels that produce all of his household’s electricity. Behind him is a greenhouse and a small herb and vegetable garden where he grows produce for himself and his family. In the garage is the power station. That’s where he keeps batteries, which are charged by the sun for his electric car sitting nearby.

“Everything we do here makes economic sense,” he says with great enthusiasm. “Everything including the solar oven, the composting, the garden, the fruit trees all over, the energy-efficient thermostats, the fluorescent light bulbs, the insulation in the attic, the blanket on the water heater, the solar water heaters … It is completely economic to live this way, and it’s mistaken for people to think that this is not cost-effective.”

Begley comments on the insanity of city folks driving their SUVs to the gym, where they pay a membership fee, and then go inside and exercise on a bicycle machine. “How could you ever explain that to someone from another planet?” laughs Begley.

Begley believes that the greatest problem facing the planet today is the rampant consumerism driving everyone. “We worship things so much that we’ve lost track of what life is really all about. The pursuit of obtaining things is not the answer — it’s the problem.”

Begley sees himself as a religious person, though not a churchgoer. “Science and technology bear out the fact that all people are the same. I believe in the oneness of us all. Recognizing this oneness has to be at the basis of choosing to live in a way that doesn’t do further harm to the planet,” he tells me.

He’s not a proselytizer of environmentalism, nor does he make any demands of others. He’s just one person who is committed to take responsibility for the way his life affects the environment. By his example, Ed Begley Jr. is a true environmental leader.

Christopher Nyerges is the editor of Wilderness Way magazine and the author of “How to Survive Anywhere” and other books. His Web site is ChristopherNyerges.com.