Two conversations recently have gotten me thinking recently about the environment and the way we live.

The first one: I was introduced to someone as The Sun's Chesapeake Bay reporter, and the person asked, "Are you a greenie?"

The second one: I was on a panel discussion about the environment, and we were talking about farmers and land development being the largest sources of bay pollution. The person leading the discussion pointed out that farmers are just trying to make a living, and everyone needs a place to live, so who's the bad guy here? Whose fault is the pollution in the bay?

The answer is, it is our fault. Time was when there were factories belching toxic smoke and dumping lots of terrible things into the water, but in the 1970s the Clean Water Act (which turns 35 next year) largely took care of that. You still see the occasional polluter being slapped with fines, but we can't blame the factories for what ails us, in large part because many of them are simply not around anymore.

What is causing our problems is, in large part, our lifestyle. We drive everywhere, in ever-bigger cars. Most of us live in new homes that are largely not energy-efficient, bigger than we really need, not walkable to anything.

We can buy carbon offsets and put a bumper sticker on our SUV telling everyone we have done so and we can use biodegradable toilet paper, but does that really make us green?

Me, I wouldn't consider myself a "greenie."  I drive a hybrid, but it's as much for the great gas mileage as for the environmental benefits. I recycle my newspapers every two weeks, but really, isn't it nice that they pick 'em up at the curb?

I guess the thing that makes me most "environmentally correct" may not sound so "green" at all: my family bought a house in walking distance of everything we need, and we walk all the time. We do it for exercise, to get outside, and because who feels like getting a parking ticket? The fact that it is good for the earth, I suppose, is an ancillary benefit.