Clean up your mess

I get emails forwarded along to me every now and again from my dad...Some are jokes about "old geezers" (which he apparently considers himself to be), while others often take the form of contrasting aspects of modern life against the ideallic norms of yesteryear. I think he sees them through the rose-colored filter of time, and forwards them along for others that he thinks would appreciate the nostalgia in a well-meaning manner...but I can't help but find myself looking at the deeper intent and meaning contained within them sometimes.

I received one such example just today:

How Wasteful the Older Generation Was...

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine
Every time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a hankerchief, not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you.
When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?

At first, this seems wistful and innocent - see, look, the old lady really *IS* green. Just look at the way things used to be. But then I got to thinking about it...

I'm certainly not an over-the-top environmentalist - I'm still guilty of using the plastic grocery bags myself, I recently traded in my 35MPG compact car for a 17MPG mid-size truck, and I have a 35-mile commute twice-a-day - but I do sympathize with the whole green movement. I accept the volumes of independant research that suggests we're having a negative impact on our environment. More importantly, though, I believe it's a fallicy to think that the prevention of a negative environmental impact is the only reason we shouldn't clean up our collective act. The thing is, though, rather than emphasizing some of the "ways it once was" as potential models for modern society to (re-)emulate, I get the distinct feeling that this story is saying "hey, don't blame me/us for this mess".

"Back in my day" seems to be describing depression era through postwar America...up until the mid-late 50s. And it's absolutely right that "back in her day" we didn't have the throw-away society that became the norm later...stuff did get reused, repaired, and built & maintained for longevity - not for the sake of the environment, but for the sake of the bottom dollar. It was cheaper to keep something working than to replace it.

Then plastics manufacturing (and later, electronics manufacturing) became cheap, and people realized that convenience sells...and for the last 40-60 years, we moved away from the "built to last" philosophy to the "throw it out and get another" philosophy. At the same time, we went form 1-car single income families to 2+ car dual-income families, and we all had to own our own piece of America (with a sizeable backyard), which led to the Urban Sprawl issues we have today, and is a big part of why we drive 5 miles to the grocery store, rather than walking 2 blocks. So yeah, I can believe that "back in my day" was pretty (unintentionally) Green earlier in her life...but I'd bet she also took advantage of the modern conveniences and wasteful excess that came later, too...clearly she's still using those plastic bags, for instance (which I am also guilty of).

"Green" isn't a blame game, though, pointing an accusitive finger at those who came before and saying "clean up your mess", and it isn't about making our lives more difficult...the modern environmentalist movement attempts to get people to look critically at their own behavior and realize where they're being wasteful, to realize the degree of impact it has when aggregated out across the entire populace, and to look for ways they can reduce their own negative contribution to that impact. They espouse ideas like buying locally-grown produce in-season instead of produce that was shipped from halfway across the country (or globe)...or using longer-lasting and lower-consumption flourescent bulbs in place of incandescants...or promoting the insfrastructure for more economical mass-transit systems as replacements for much of our day-to-day driving...or backing research into ways to not only end not only our foreign oil dependance, but also our long-running practice of pouring pollutants and greenhouse gasses into the air we breathe. Stuff like "we walked 2 blocks to the grocery store instead of driving", for instance, is right up their alley (along with reducing Urban Sprawl to make it more feasible), as is washing out and reusing bottles (or, worst case, reclaiming the material through recycling instead of making new material). As for the technology (like the TV), well, I really wouldn't be surprised if my 37" LED-backlit LCD TV actually draws less power than the old 7" vaccum-tube equipped black-and-white CRT console that was used "back in her day", and the simple reality is that hand-washing clothes, while eco-friendly, isn't a realistic expectation in an era where both parents need to hold down a full-time job. But electricity usage would essentially become a non-issue for environmentalists if we were using clean and renewable power (like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric) exclusively.

Having unwittingly done the right thing "back in my day" doesn't excuse you from doing the right thing now, and it certainly doesn't invalidate the point that bringing a reusable shopping bag to the store is indeed more environmentally friendly than using and throwing out a disposable grocery bag every time you shop.

Can individuals be jerks in the way they present their message sometimes? Absolutely...but poor presentation doesn't invalidate the message, even if it may make it harder to swallow.