How Part-TIme Life in Mexico Made Me an "Accidental Environmentalist"
Updated August, 2021
Life in Mexico: A smaller environmental footprint.
There is a growing recognition that the global environmental crisis is now, not 50 years from now. While it’s been building for decades, melting glaciers, rising ocean temperatures and its effects, and extreme weather events are increasing faster than anticipated.
In considering the idea of living in Mexico part-time, you probably never linked the idea of part-time expat life with living a more ecological lifestyle. I never did. Yet surprisingly, taking stock of my part-time life in Mexico, it turns out I leave less of a carbon footprint than anyone I know in the U.S.
Sure, a Mexican lifestyle at times lacks some of the creature comforts of upper class American life. What all those very affluent Americans so concerned about the environment refuse to accept is that their comfort is doing much more destruction to the planet than their most ardent recycling could ever redress.
Research tells us the more comfortable we are, the more destruction we are likely causing. No matter how much you care about the world, the best indicator of your impact on the planet and environment is your income, translating to the size of house, the SUV’s, the central air, the closet full of clothes, the dishwasher, and the vacations that income provides.
Part-time life in Mexico, which includes none of those things other than bi-annual plane trips, has made me an accidental environmentalist. If you follow the part-time lifestyle laid out in my book, “The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico,” you too will reduce your consumption of the earth’s resources, but without giving up what’s really essential to living well. Here’s why.
Housing
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the average size of a new home in the U.S is 1,000 square feet larger than homes built in the early 1970’s. More energy is required to heat and cool these larger homes. It takes 10 SUVs worth of energy to build a traditional home. Over 60% of homes in the U.S. now have a central system (except for temperate areas around the coast). Air conditioners are now standard equipment in over 87% of US homes. Larger homes and central AC have increased air conditioning energy consumption, which has more than doubled in use since 1980.
In Mexico, you can expect homes and apartments, even those larger and luxurious, will have neither central heat nor central air. Homes and apartments have splits in the rooms that are turned off and on as needed when you are in the room. While beachfront and very modern, none of my apartments have had dish washing machines and most people do not have them, even in large (Mexican) homes.
The months when I live in the U.S., to make subletting easier, I live in a small, well-appointed downtown apartment (with valet recycling!) in a wonderful city, Denver. This smaller apartment leaves a smaller environmental imprint than any house.
Clothing
Every time I return to the U.S. I am struck by how much I suddenly want. Entering an elevator recently, I saw a 20-something wearing UGG-style boots with an adorable ‘swish” of fur draping horizontally across the boot top. I wanted them. They looked great with her feather earrings. I wanted those too. When I am in the US, this feeling invades me at some point practically every day I go out on the street even without the constant marketing we become accustomed to. When I complained to a friend about the unrelenting craving, more pointed in its absence when I’m in Mexico, she consoled me by saying “a person has only so much will power.”
According to National Geographic, city dwellers in the U.S. buy a lot more clothes. The fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world. Eighty-five percent of textiles go into the dump each year. Even if I wanted to purchase what I saw in Mexico, finding what I see is more complicated. Online purchasing is less secure, and in Spanish. All of which dampens my enthusiasm for the buying I do at home.
An even bigger deterrent to consumerism is the desire to travel light. Any one thing I purchase is one more thing to pack, and another thing to pay to store. Would I even remember in two years which box those once-precious Ugg boots were in, or that I even owned them?
Having fewer material goods is a key factor to happy part-time expat life. Storage and the hassle of hauling them around puts the brakes on any new hat or boots, however irresistible they seemed at the moment. Part-time expat life keeps me down to about eight complete outfits per season.
Your carbon footprint in the U.S.
It’s not just clothes. People who live in cities tend to buy more of everything. They fly more and use more energy than people who live in rural areas. Although public transportation and high rise living reduces energy consumption, studies have shown that a real measurement of a person’s carbon footprint must take all “consumed” products into account.
In the future, studies have shown that more and more people will be city dwellers. When city dwellers’ consumption habits are added up, it turns out that urbanites have a carbon toll about 60 percent higher than previous calculations suggested.
How you cook and eat in Mexico versus the U.S.
Even food and cooking in an American city consumes more resources. American cookbooks used to have me running out for a $9 jar of mustard seed or smoked paprika.
For the last few years, I have been researching and writing a cookbook, The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico for expats and longer-term visitors in Mexico. In the process, what I have discovered is that cooking in Mexico is far more simple, with fewer ingredients. Many recipes (soups, pastas) are more forgiving of imperfect produce. This more simple approach carried over into my cooking in the US. My diet is cheaper and healthier, and uses fewer resources. Oven aren’t used much in Mexico either, saving those costs.
Eating meat has “dire consequences for the planet”. Its side effects are an increase in greenhouse gases, water and crop use, and damage from fertilizers. Beef is used sparingly in native Mexican cooking. Once used to consuming less meat in Mexico, I consumed less of it in when I was in the U.S. too.
If you give up on owning a car
Burning fossil fuel is one of the greatest contributors to climate change. Life is much easier without a car when you live a two country lifestyle. Being a part-time expat, I got rid of the expensive SUV (which would have sat unused for months at a time). I walk, and use public transportation more - all things that were impossible to give up before in the U.S. in the name of convenience.
Aviation
Flying has been cited as another major polluter. Don’t get me wrong. I think travel is wonderful. It’s simply a plus to not have to make a lot of flights to satisfy my desire for foreign adventure. As a part-time expat, I fly every 5-6 months. That’s it.
Living in a country for six months at a time (versus a number of vacation trips) provides me personal growth and adventure without the aviation. I speak another language. I have true friends from another culture. I am learning more about politics, sensitivities, and the realities of my chosen culture-of-interest than I ever could as a tourist. Living in a foreign country part-time satisfies my desire to travel. After six months in another country, I love being home.
America’s throw-away culture
Once I bought lampshades through Amazon that were the wrong size. When I called Amazon for a return label, they told me to write a big “X” on them and throw them away. The same happened with some plastic plates I bought accidentally. Where do you think they are going? A landfill. The U.S. is a throw-away culture. This, to me, is obscene. Frustratingly, you are usually given no choice.
In Mexico, I once paid $20 dollars for a new motor for a blender. You are much more likely to be able to get an appliance fixed, even small appliances, in Mexico. Almost anything can be fixed in Mexico and it feels good to do so.
Unforeseen benefits
At the time I moved to Mexico, of course I had no idea that doing so would make a contribution to the environment. Moving to Mexico initially was a financial decision that morphed into recognition of how living in Mexico would change my life in many other ways.
I am happier, more patient, more curious and a better person in Mexico. The unanticipated benefit is that this part-time lifestyle is far easier on the planet only added to an already long list of reasons of reasons why it works for me and could work for you too.
Related links:
Ah, the pleasures of having things fixed rather than buying them again - [blog]- Ventanas Mexico
Most recent:
Most part-time expats keep a very full dance card. Here’s a sample of what you might be doing in Mexico in a single month if you lived there.
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Getting a great photograph doesn’t happen often. It took six years to come up with these.
About the author:
Kerry Baker is the author of three books. The second book is “If Only I Had a Place” on how to rent luxuriously in Mexico, the things no realtor will tell you. “The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico,” is the only guide of its kind: A how-to (including a time line) that won’t leave you numb. “The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico” is a cookbook for travelers, snowbirds and expats seeking to eat healthy in Mexico.