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choices?

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by Bob Allen, Apr 1, 2004.

  1. Bob Allen

    Bob Allen Captainbaba

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    There seems to be a belief going around that our grandparents were somehow greener than we because they consumed less. "My grandfather didn't even own a bicycle"..... The 19th Century and most of the 20th, were horrendous for the environment and our grand parents' and great grandparents' generations had little or no regard for the consequences of their actions. People acted as if the resources of the planet were limitless.
    The point I am making is that we are not likely to "go back" to a "more environmentally pure" era because that era never existed. Rather than idolize the past we need to correct the present in order to protect the future.
    In an interview with Arthur C. Clarke, the interviewer asked him about the past and what period he most admired. I believe he said "none". He elaborated: would you like to have lived before the invention of antibiotics or anesthesia? (see the movie, "Master and Commander"). Where do you think most of us would have been in classical Greece? Most of us would have been workers or slaves; only the very absolute few had "democracy". Anyway, he went on for some time and the gist of his arguement is that the past is always idealized unrealistically and the future looked at pessimistically.
    Human nature being what it is, most of us will not voluntarily "give up" things like automobiles and dishwashers. Challenge then is to make these things as efficient as possible and to support companies and indivituals who are working to do that. Bio-diesel production using used cooking oil is a huge potential market for energy, especially since bio-diesel is using oil that has already been used for cooking and would simply be tossed otherwise. The Prius, and Toyota in general, are working to produce the most efficient cars on the planet, and the work will continue. Did you know that your Prius is virtually 100% recycleable? The plastic in the car is made from vegetable matter, not petrochemicals, in a process Toyota perfected as part of a committment to produce the most car for the least resources.
    The Chinese will lead the way, I think, because they are incredibly resourceful, resilient, and hard working. They also have enormous problems with sheer numbers of people striving to better their lives. I doubt they would settle for a bicycle only future in a world full of automobiles. What looks like is happening there is that they will bypass the kind of wastefulness that characterized this country in the 50's and move right into alternate technologies like hybrid autos, safer nuclear power, etc.
    Not sure where this is going, but I'd like to say that we shouldn't be smug about buying Prii, nor pessimistic about the future. We are all moving slowly towards a better way of using resources.
    Bob
     
    #1 Bob Allen, Apr 1, 2004
  2. Tempus

    Tempus Senior Member

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    A good book to debunk some nostalgia is "The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible" by Otto Bettmann.

    I think it's a Smithsonian Press publication, but not sure.

    Lots of short chapters with old illustrations of the trials of life: spoiled/tainted food, back breaking labor, open sewers, farm animals and horses in the city, tenements before A/C, crime, Air Pollution from wood and coal burning, etc.
     
    #2 Tempus, Apr 2, 2004
  3. twindad

    twindad New Member

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    A few years back, there was a show on PBS called the 1900 house. They took a modern family and had them live in a turn of the century house, complete with turn of the century appliances, clothing, food, etc. They thought it would be fun, and of course, it turned out to be hell.
     
    #3 twindad, Apr 2, 2004
  4. Danny

    Danny Admin/Founder
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    That was also an episode of the Simpsons :lol:
     
    #4 Danny, Apr 2, 2004
  5. cybele

    cybele New Member

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    I think part of the (mis)conception about the good olde days comes from the fact that our ancestors did more things for themselves.

    As an example - clothes. Even when my mother was a kid her mother made her clothes, they bought bolts of fabric at the dry goods store and my grandmother sewed her dresses and blouses. Extra fabric was saved and used for clothing repairs or refashioning of existing garments.

    When an item outlived its useful life it was turned into rags, patches or scraps that would become patchwork quilts. When the quilts outlived their usefulness they would then be turned into rag yarn, dyed and braided into rugs.

    Very few of us still do this. Many quilters chose to buy their fabrics new and sew from that instead of the authentic quilting, which was done primarily from necessity. The ultimate in reduce, reuse, recycle.

    Today we separate out these different segments of our consumption. I buy my clothes pre-assembled. When they outlive their useful lives for me, either because of fashion, fit or wear, I donate them to a charity. I don't make them ... I don't reuse them. (Well, some old tees I keep for rags and some special items I keep for that quilt I'll make someday.)

    In this way it's harder to see where things come from and where they go, our lifestyle is only one stop in what I hope is a long cycle for a piece of fabric that probably involves thousands of people, from the growing of the cotton to the manufacture of the fabric, design of the garment, manufacture, marketing to the store, shipping, selling and my ultimate purchase (probably at a second run store, like TJ Maxx, so it's been merchandised twice).

    Now our lives are full of specialists. If we do fix things, we rarely do it ourselves, it's too hard to be an expert on the TV, radio, toaster, car and hot water heater, the sheer number of tools required makes it more efficient to take them to a shop or just buy a new one and give the old one to someone else to have repaired.

    I think one of the most imporant choices we can make is about durability. If I'm going to buy a car (and the manufacture of a car is about 15% of its lifetime energy/materials consumption), it needs to be one that will last at least 150,000 miles and 10 years - it just doesn't make sense otherwise. If I'm going to buy clothes, I look for things that I can wash myself and go with everything else I already own and can stand up to my lifestyle and aren't grossly trendy that I'd be uncomfortable wearing them in 2 years.

    Giving thought to these things, the large items we purchase (those that are termed durable goods) to the small things like celluar phones (that we seem to swap out every other year), food packaging, vacations ... they all add up to our overall footprint on the earth. I think my grandparents would be appalled that I have owned four different cell phones in the past 10 years ... they had the same rotary phone in their kitchen for 30 years. They probably would have kept it if the plug had worked with the new connectors ... yeah, there were some good things about the old days.
     
    #5 cybele, Apr 2, 2004
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