"The Green Thing" – A Subtle Reminder for all of us…

[365Stairs]

(this is copied and re-posted – No Edits)

Subject: The “GREEN” thing

“Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned 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 we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books. But too bad we didn’t do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we 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 handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we 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 walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we 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 burger joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we older folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish older person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart###@*! young people. We don’t like being older in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to piss us off.”

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[DBP]

That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.

Ha. Can’t you just see some young cashier at a store saying this to a customer? This is a classic “Urban Legend” e-mail that’s probably made the rounds of the Internet a few hundred times by now. Nevertheless, there’s the usual kernal of truth to it . . .

Anyway, now I’m wondering: Where exactly IS the generational dividing line on wise use?

My 86-year-old dad grew up during the Great Depression, and you’d better believe I was treated to my share of dinnertime lectures about how wasteful and ungrateful my generation is. And he was right: My generation (Baby Boomers) is, in the main, wasteful and ungrateful. But you know what? —So are my dad and his crowd.

He and my mom currently own no less than three homes — only one of which they live in, the other two sit empty 90% of the time — and between them, they always have at least three huge, gas-guzzling land-yachts. Pretty good for a couple of refugees from the Great Depression, wouldn’t you say?

Sometimes Dad calls me on the phone to chat about global warming. It’s not that he doesn’t believe it’s real: he does. I think he just wants to gloat.

It’s like: “Neener-neener-neener! We burned up the plaaaa-net!!”

Same deal with Medicare and Social Security. The “Greatest Generation” apparently thinks they’re all entitled to endless benefits ‘cuz they lived through the War.

Everyone else can just get bent.

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[365Stairs]

For every thing that saves a thing…there is a new thing that takes a thing. Simple math really.

Every generation that ever lived and used the earth’s natural resources (and subsequently enhanced forms of natural resources) has had its own definition of waste, abuse of their surroundings, and replenishment.

You cannot get away from it…

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[datamuse]

True enough.

After all, back then dilution was considered a safe and effective way to dispose of toxic waste, which is why I live uphill from one of the most polluted waterways in the country.

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[DBP]

My dad once told me: “When your mom and I were young, we just assumed that we’d never run out of oil and all these other resources. We assumed that the supply was inexhaustible. Everyone did.”

But really . . . he should’ve known better. After all, he’d fought in a war that was caused in no small part by the fact that oil is a scarce commodity. The Japanese wanted it, but they didn’t have enough of it, so they started a war, just so they could get some more.

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[anonyme]

365, awesome post.

I’m old and cranky, and the “new” green thing is just one of my pet peeves. For the most part, it’s just another marketing tool. Then we have extravaganzas like the “Green Expo”, which are merely showcases for MERCH, MERCH, MERCH!!! Apparently the “green” kids think that as long as your T-shirts are made of organic cotton, it’s OK to buy 100 of them in every color. Never mind the fact that millions more acres of land will have to be cleared for cotton production…It’s all so very shortsighted and self-congratulatory.

The one thing that would do the most to help the planet is the very thing that no politician will touch: POPULATION CONTROL.

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[happywalker]

Don’t get me started on population control…Mother Earth is getting very weary.

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[HunterG]

I cannot believe a cashier would say that! AND I can’t believe how ignorant of the past this person was. Just pure ignorance.

I am doing my part and am not breeding, population control needs to be addressed, but y’know why it wont be? RELIGION.

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[datamuse]

I seriously doubt this is drawn from a real-life example. It’s one of those “back in MY day” stories that nobody I know who’s old enough to say something like that ever actually tells.

I also note that none of them are living this way NOW, my 70-something parents included.

Besides, whoever wrote this screed is pretty ignorant of the past, themselves. The past, after all, is when (as I mentioned previously) it was thought that dumping toxic waste into waterways was perfectly okay because dilution would render it harmless (tell that to the people who I really hope aren’t EATING the fish they get out of the Duwamish), those returned and reused bottles were washed with phosphate-containing detergents, my 2007 Prius gets way better gas mileage than my husband’s 1957 Falcon, and whoever wrote this must be pretty old because we’ve been steadily replacing other materials with disposable plastic since the late 19th century. I wonder if they had a clothes washer to wash all those diapers in?

They are right about one thing, though. In the grand scheme of things, a disposable plastic bag versus an also plastic reusable one probably won’t make much difference.

Most people are ignorant of the past. Not to say that there aren’t some good points in there, but don’t mistake something for the truth just because you agree with it.

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[JoB]

datamuse..

careful with that pretty old stuff..

yes.. i did have a washer to wash all those diapers in..

i even had a drier.. but i hung them on the line anyway

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[The Velvet Bulldog]

Ah JoB: you keep playing that “little old lady” card, but no one’s buying it. ;-)

I just got a degree in Horticultural Restoration and have learned more in the past few years about habitat, environment, energy, sustainability, etc. etc. than I have in my whole life. There’s still not much info out there, and what info there is, no one can seem to agree on.

I’ve decided that what I can do is my own small part and conserve where I can, be active where I can, and be aware and conscientious always. I’m not adding to the population (interestingly–in many developed areas, populations are actually decreasing. NPR ran a story within the last month or so about this) and I became a “Carbon Coach” through a City of Seattle program to teach others about smart energy use and resource alternatives.

When I get really discouraged, I think, “Well, we’re parasites and parasites usually kill their hosts…” but then I look at my honorary nephews and nieces and realize I can’t just throw up my hands and think “to hell with it.” So I decide to build a rain garden in the back yard instead.

After cycling into a world of plastics and chemicals, we seem to be cycling back to an era of organic gardening, and drying clothes on lines. Personally, I’m waiting for the horse and buggy to make a comeback…

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[Andy]

On that not breeding thing and Population control – TVB’s NPR reference may be similar to this, which shows just how often politicians are touching the issue of population control (just, you know, maybe not touching it, er, in the right places). Ahem:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/09/MNTQ11UVLJ.DTL

If overpopulation is a problem, it ain’t because we’re bumpin’ uglies too much in the People’s Republic of West Seattle. Or any other developed nation, for that matter. Indeed, if you Google “incentives to have kids” you get an awful lot of links pointing to articles about what developed nations are doing to help increase their birthrates, which have dropped below economically sustainable levels across the board. The US just recently poked its nose above the waterline – barely.

Oddly, and probably somewhat woefully for people inclined to conservative politics, it’s not outlandish to conclude that immigration (legal or otherwise) from undeveloped countries with ridiculously high birthrates are the only things making Western economies viable down the road.

But this all moves a bit off the original topic. Sorry, but fear not! I can bring it back around: The birth rate calculations do include consideration for remaining environmentally friendly, i.e. not over-consuming natural resources.

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