Only the young are 'Green', it seems....
federica
Seeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
Received this today on my FB profile.
I'm old enough and sufficiently amused to reproduce it here...
"Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own carrier bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologised and explained, "We didn't have this whole 'green' thing back in my earlier days....."
The cashier interrupted, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." She was right about one thing -- our generation didn't have the green thing in “Our” day.
So what did we have back then…?
After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day here's what I remembered we did have....
Back then, we returned milk bottles, fizzy pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilised and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled.
...But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator or lift in every store and office building. We walked to the supermarket and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two minutes up the road.
...But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.Back then, we washed the baby's nappies 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 England.
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 screwed up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol 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 bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums 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 computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have 'the green thing' back then?
Or maybe we didn't have the 'green' thing, because we didn't entirely need it back then.
Sure, we used coal and oil, and maybe we didn't realise the impact of such elements on the environment - but overall, we weren't as wasteful, cavalier or careless with materials, as we are today...
As my company's recycling motto states: We need to stick to 'Plan 'A'. Because there IS no 'PLan B'...
On the 5th of October of his year, every retail outlet in the UK will be obliged - BY LAW - to charge all customers purchasing products, and requiring a bag, a nominal fee for the plastic carrier. No matter what size the bag, they will have to pay for it.
There's an awful lot to be said for a good sturdy paper bag, I think....
Comments
Sure enough, we had B&W and only a few channels. The milk man delivered those glass so it was 1milk van vs 200 - 300 cars today. And so on...
We recycled without calling it recycling.
Solar and wind were free.
We walked or rode our bikes to the city plunge (BIG community swimming pool)
To school and back on foot or bike
The bikes were all foot powered, no motors
Computers, when anyone talked about them, took up whole rooms.
Oh, we were so wasteful back then, tsk! tsk!
Peace to all
Very well balanced article, @Federica.
We had milk delivered in glass containers, too, @Lionduck. My best friend in high school and I would walk for miles out in the toolies just to look around, and we'd find crates full of empty glass bottles that we hauled back and got ourselves some cash for it. Nowadays, I recycle the plastic water bottles. Recyclers are always digging in our dumpster for cans and what-not.
Some stores here are starting to charge for the bags, which I think is only right, and I've signed petitions about doing away with those plastic bags - even though I do re-use them at home quite a bit - mostly to line our little trash can in the bathroom and put organic peelings in to throw away.
One of the most valuable, missed and scarce item at a monastery I was staying at was the precious plastic bag. Fortunately new plastic like biodegradable materials are becoming the norm.
In the present times we seem to be moving towards disposable biodegradeble clothes. Except at the moment they are neither equitably produced or managed. Landfill is largely cheap clothes turned to useless rags ...
Green is an attitude of responsible consumerism and environmental awareness. A project in progress ...
You had paper bags?! Sheer luxury!
We certainly live in a throw-away society now, nobody bothers to fix things any more, just throw it away and buy a new one.
They sure don't make 'em like they used to!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825163/
@federica , I think you work for the company my company has contract with.
we do logistics and everytime I see that motto on trailers, it remind of ajahn brahm who says we humans like to plan a lot like we have control over future.
In Ontario we pay for bags, its been a while now, you just kinda get used to it.
In the small, respectable, 1 church per 800 people (11 churches) town I grew up in, a grocery store chain moved in that made you put a dollar coin in the shopping cart so you would need to return it to the pile to retrieve your coin. I had revolutionary thoughts, fueled mostly by rage for the insult. What do you think, I'm not going to return the cart? I'm going to bring it home? Yea, a windy cart is a danger to a parked dodge, but I've never once seen a cart trolly off on its own. The old store had an employee wrangle up the loose ones a few times a day anyways. But not no more, this is progress.
Then inside, no one helped you bag your stuff. You had to hop over to the far side and pack your own bloody groceries. And you had to push a little button to make the food come to you. And they scanned so fast, you'd often end up holding up someone because you couldn't bag as fast as a professional. Humiliating.
At least as a positive, they kept piles of empty product cases stacked at the far wall that you could use in them in place of bags.
There is another store down a few towns that actually bags your product for you and someone will even bring it to your car. I was actually quite unnerved when the bag boy diligently packed it all up and began his way outside, with a bright cheery smile to boot. I felt useless, or like I had just taken advantage of someone's kindness.
I guess I'll never win.
Each generation readjusts the focal point on their lenses. In the assumption that we muddle through this age of ours, future historians and archaeologists will wonder just how we managed to do it. Or they will follow the course of events as if they were inevitable. Which, of course, they are not.
We can reminisce about the "Good old days" which weren't always that good, just as our elders reminisced in their day. We can tsk tsk at the ignorance or perceived arrogance of today's youth who may tsk tsk at the the perceived arrogance of the "old" folk.
Or we can get together, roll up our sleeves and try to give future generations a future...
D*** lduck, get off that soap box before you fall off and hurt yourself!
Peace to all
Ha ha, now that everyone's stolen your line, it's old hat when you say it.
Old hats!? We could only dream of those.
I have all those same memories of the good old days. But I don't think my now-graying Boomer generation can honestly claim credit for green choices. There were, in fact, no choices to be made. I traveled by foot and by bike, but not by any particular choice. My culture at the time simply didn't offer me the alternatives available today. Same for many of the other examples. They only appear in retrospect to be virtuous choices. In the reality of that time, though, there were not choices to be made. And when technology did confer the opportunity to make choices, the choices made included vast chemical pollution (remember Love Canal?), strip mining, DDT, nuclear power, leaded gasoline, leaded paint, asbestos insulation, Shell No-Pest Strips, Monsanto, etc.
I hope that young cashier doesn't become too jaded. Her children and grandchildren need her spirit.
Material expectations have continued to rise in the developed world. Now people expect to have not only a washing machine but a drier and a dish-washer. And instead of putting on a jumper indoors when the weather is cold they just turn the heating up. And they drive their car everywhere, even for very short trips. Pah!
I wonder when the green juggernaut will turn its gimlet eye to water and soft-drink containers.
Bottled water, pah! Here the water is fine from the tap, yet people have to buy it in plastic bottles and then walk round with one all day so as to stay hydrated, and spend half their life in the toilet peeing it out again! Pah!
I know what I like in old hats.
While still in high school I was one of those bag boys. It was a pretty nice job but you has to hustle. Imagine having to know your regular customer by name and also know how the customer wanted their groceries packed. Customers generally wanted double bagged orders. Management was always after us to use one paper bag. But if in the course of single bagging the bag should burst the bag boy caught hell. Oy the high drama on coupon days.
Well, I think, as someone who likes to think she's conscientious, I try to do my bit....
I DO put extra layers on when cold - try putting a hat and scarf on indoors - I promise you, you'll feel warmer within minutes. And the look of sheer dumbfoundedness when I tell people I do not own a dishwasher (though I must confess, at times, I wish I did....)
I also have skills....
I can gut a fish, a rabbit, and a chicken, (If needs be... I could do it. I wouldn't kill it though....) and I make all my foods (sauces, stews, casseroles, pickles and preserves) from scratch. You will NEVER find a ready-made sauce-in-a-jar, or pre-prepared food in my house.
While I don't have a rural, huge garden, suitable for allotment conversion, I can grow many vegetables myself, and intend to do so next year....
My re-cycling bin is always fuller than anyone else's, I have a compost heap, and all 'big' garden waste is removed by the Council once a month.
I re-cycle carrier bags and return them to stores that offer plastic bag collection services.
I even re-cycle clothes, cutting t-shirts up into long strips and knitting with them... I have even been known to unravel a charity-shop-bought sweater and make a scarf with the wool...
All re-cycling, in and of itself, consumes commodities.
The council uses big trucks to collect trash, re-cycling and garden waste, but they try to make such services as economic and viable, cost-effective and damage-limiting as possible.
I for one, am on a personal campaign to convince suppliers to use less packaging, by removing everything from boxes, packets and plastic blister-packs, once past the checkout - and leaving them for the supermarket to dispose of.
maybe if more people did that, we could convince manufacturers to be less wasteful.
If we all thought about it, we could all find ways of being a little bit more responsible about how we deal with stuff.
I once heard an Environmental manager, working at a Council, say this:
"If everybody had the responsibility of all dealing with, and disposing of ALL their own household waste, we'd all pretty soon become far more conscious of just how wasteful we are, and a lot more responsible of how we deal with it...."
It's easy to cite some faceless authority and hold them, and others responsible for this, that and the other, but responsibility - like Charity - should begin at home.
Another thing which surprises me is the amount of food which is just thrown away, around 30% I believe. I assume a lot of it is just poor planning, overbuying, food going out of date? I never throw food away, it seems so wasteful.
The UK alone throws away over 15 million tonnes of food every year - the cost is incalculable but it nears £15m.... most of that waste is household.
People are paranoid. They see the 'use by' or 'best before' and panic.
When I was a kid, those dates, on every conceivable packaging of food, simply didn't exist.
If it looked off, smelt off and tasted off.... guess what? it was probably 'off'....!
Now, food that is still perfectly good to eat, is discarded, the moment the date is reached.
People: Be sensible. Use your eyes, nose and (cautiously) your tongue.
When fish is off, you'll know it.
When vegetables are off - ditto.
Don't let your lives and food supplies be dicated by the date on the packet....
In my home town, people can still have the milk man deliver milk in glass bottles. He also can deliver other dairy products, as well.
"The green thing" started in 1970, with the first Earth Day. I remember the older highschool students and college students all rode their bikes to their classes that day, instead of riding the bus or driving. (Back then, few students could afford to have a car, anyway.) So I'd say that it's only the oldest of the generations alive today that didn't have an environmental consciousness. I could be wrong, but household recycling trash began in the 1960's, in the US. Some cities had always separated their trash as part of the trash service, and recycled everything possible.
I think the cashier's generation (in the OP) needs to study more history.
Back then, college dorm rooms weren't lavishly appointed with small fridges (one for each resident, the way it is, now), radios, TV's, etc. Everything was very spare. And public transportation in the US was well-developed, until the 1950's, when a consortium of corporate interests dismantled the transport systems in many of the largest cities, and the inter-state transport, as well. The main culprits in the degradation of the environment are the corporations. That hasn't changed. They've only become further entrenched (see the WTO).
It's great for us all to take personal responsibility to consume less and recycle whenever possible, but there's much more to solving the problems than that. And even if we could switch over to sustainable energy sources and rein in the corporations, that wouldn't stop China (and Russia) from its dependence on coal, making the air unbreathable for its own citizens, and dropping coal dust and pollution onto arctic glaciers via the air currents, causing accelerated melting of the glaciers.
Most Buddhists seem to be concerned with their environment, usually because they live in it. Like @federica, I feel 'green' is an attitude not a guilt trip to impose on throw away cliches.
Even though I have a tiny garden, I have two composting bins. Green waste material composts to very little in the summer time.
What more could I do? I already tend to only wear passed on clothes. I do have a 'sinful' dishwasher but no clothes drier. It was impossible to convince people that a clothes drier on cold air only mode, uses very little energy. Ah well ...
I try to run a paperless home office. I use an electric bike, public transport or if possible walk mostly.
The Buddha in his one piece toga, was a green minimalist. My hero ...
All praise Elon Musk, our saviour!
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html
I find Federica's and Lobster 's posts inspiring. Imagine the impact if we all took those very simple but very transformative steps.
I suspect, though I can't explain why, that Buddhists in general are more likely to have these convivial eccentricities, practiced at the deep levels described, than the population at large.
Perhaps it is due to the general Buddhist concept of interdependence or reverence or at least respect for the environment. I have been brought to tears seeing what commercial "development" (a misnomer) has done to our precious home...
The again it just may be our eccentricities
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You're right, fedrica and lobster did post well.
Peace to all
I find this post disturbing. It's almost a "Well, I can try but really, what difference would it make?" resignation to the belief that whatever we do, it will have little or no effect.
On the contrary.
Never heard of "Think global, act local?"
Never heard of "If you want to change the world, start with a small garden"...?
Why do you suppose that in actual fact, supermarkets ARE indeed trying to use less packaging?
Why outlets like Lidl and Aldi refuse to perpetuate the ideology of expensive supermarkets by cutting back on fancy shelving, presentation and products?
Why do you suppose that now, all retail outlets in the England will begin charging for the use of plastic bags (all proceeds, after VAT, will go to charity, by the way)...?
And permit me to mention that we lag behind Wales, Ireland and Scotland in this respect. They have been charging for plastic bags for years....(2011, 2013 & 2014, respectively).
Public demand.
The social requirement to see change implemented.
Name and shame.
I am certain that in the not-too-distant future, both China and Russia will be compelled to re-think their strategies.
Russia and China are not the only culprits.
The whole world has taken the whole world for granted.
100 years ago, we never thought that the UK and Germany would EVER see eye to eye and agree on anything.
The Huns were the enemy.
Now, we walk arm in arm, for the most part (like all good buddies, we have occasional disagreements!)
Who would have thought it possible?
Change can happen.
Change DOES happen.
It just takes more people to effect that change, locally, and fewer people to say "Yeah, nice effort, but...."
What were those sayings? Oh yes - Think globally, act locally and Never under estimate the power if one or something very close to that..
Take that ant, for example...
Ha-ha, whooo, oh boy lol
I don't want to stir up this fashionable argument, however it should be stated that the view of green as fashionable. Its hard to think clearly about what you can really do to be green when you are bombarded by advertising that states "eat my - buy my - invest in my whatever" because its good for the environment, and therefore, good for you.
Every major company has a green marketing division, and you can graduate with a masters in green marketing. Being green is certifiable, creditable, actionable, desired, and the expected way to live your life.
My generations communism?
Then the real confabulation comes when you are trying to determine how green you really are. We think this purchase vs. this walk instead of driving vs. this healthier food choice makes us better people. We weigh the pros and cons of better brands, our carbon footprint - are we 'organic', 'fair traded', 'locally sourced' enough... are we natural enough for our friends?
I wonder if being green is something you can even quantify, at least in my western hemisphere. I can't imagine preparing a report statistically analysing my habits, choices, economic decisions etc. vs the 'average green consumer'. How does my employment, where I choose to live, and my localy elected official each contribute to how much I can justify myself as a green citizen?
We, as the disposable generation, really have created so much more waste then previous gens. Gosh, just look at tech - smartphone and devices of all sorts are getting dirt cheap to manufacture, meaning higher demand in emerging economies, meaning exponential consumption of hard-to-recycle metal-silicon-plastic bricks that only stay fresh for a few years *tops.
I might argue that information rights trump the milkbottle arguements - previous generations had less tech. They didnt need cardboard and plastic and bubblewrap and FedEx and customs procedures for bottled milk. They wern't importing that milk from Korea because manufacturing of milk bottles is considered less costly. There wasn't stringent competition against multinational milkbottle conglomerates vying for consumer attention in a saturated Western market, where acessability to the milkinternet via milkbottle devices was recently added to the constitutions of many countries as a human right.
Of course, on the other hand, we have some fine representations of sturdy cough and transparent cough cough non-profits vying for the public image of our biggest corporate polluters via the 'real' science of climate change;
Vsit the fine people at www.heartland.org/ - an organisation funded by energy sector lobbyists in the USA, or if you prefer the friendlier canuck version:
It all makes me feel like calling up my friend Tom Cruise and asking for his opinion on the noble truths.
Similar green arguments can dominate your newsradio on certain days - you get home from work and your 'informed' five year old questions your commitment to the Kyoto protocol, and your brain wages a war against your tummy on eating things that are sinful addictions vs. fresh, crisp, greens.
Its all too much for this little guy. No wonder I'm wearing a helmet in my profile picture.
I am not, as 97% of you are also not, a global warming denyer or someone who wishes environmental destruction on themselves or the earth.
However, this fashionable obsession with the green movement is certainly something I can't help but question. 'Green', once synonymous with 'environmentally friendly', appears to have taken on the Mara quality of being an image and a lifestyle. It's a (apparently) quantifiable credit system that can justify how much you as an individual, care about yourself, your life, your family, friends, and ecosystem.
So, hypothetically, maybe our percieved efforts to be green can become efforts to root out the invisable evil in ourselves. We might be considered less pure if we arn't on every green bandwagon. Fuel efficiency, buying your bags, political conservatism = pollution, where does it stop? I was born here. I eat here. I take the bus here. I am more informed and less attached then some of my friends, but alas - I am not, nor will I ever be, 'green enough' to be a champion of the environmental movement, or stylish enough to be a model of green participation for my local business conglomerate.
As any of my patient elders that have read this rant this far would suggest, turn off the damn newsradio, and just go out into the garden. Don't garden because its the right thing to do for the planet or even your own children. Garden because it alights your senses with the colours and bees and tasty plants, or garden because your ole grandma did, or garden because you enjoy gardening. Or find a garden to walk to. Or find a garden to walk to in your mind.
Maybe getting out there in the green connects us with it. We realise (surprise) that we are indeed natural, organic, and miraculously able to heal from great wounds no matter their source or effect. We also will live and die, whether or not we care about how green we are. We will also notice if we are helping or harming our environment if we become sensitive to it.
"Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God."
-George Washington Carver
For each of us as individuals, we do what w can do. We read, we evaluate, we use our cognitive abilities, we use our Buddhist sensibilities...we do not blindly follow self-proclaimed experts and the propaganda machine(s).
Not necessarily a generational thing in terms of the populous, but perhaps in the advancement of capitalism. It's more profitable to make people want more more more (even if "more" is "green") and have to throw away/recycle the biodegradable/recyclable thing and get a new one, versus reusing.
That's why you have to see beyond the commercialism (as in leaving all the packaging for the supermarket to deal with, creating your own compost bin, as appropriate, growing some veg for yourself - the right ones, that is....) and playing the big boys at their own game....
@Federica said "and playing the big boys at their own game...."
Boy howdy. Nothing stirs 'em up more than a little one-upmanship.
Ironically, while we are encouraged to be 'green' in certain ways, we are vehemently discouraged in other ways.
Getting an entry level job today requires many of us to apply online. The days have long since passed when one had the opportunity to look the manager in the eye and shake hands. Not having a computer and internet service in your home is a liability. You could go to the public library but might miss the e-mail telling you that your interview is scheduled for 9am the next morning.
Please include your cell phone number on the application so that we can reach you immediately. Not having a cell phone is the kiss of death in many places - or at least the kiss of unemployment. Answering machines are so passé. Forget it if you don't have a home phone.
How do you plan on getting to work? I'm sorry, did you say 'walk'?! You live almost three miles away! What happens when it rains - or worse yet, snows?! You need a car. And insurance. And registration. And a current smog certificate. And ...
Consume, consume, consume... which of course is very purple, or red, or blue - but definitely not green.
When I was jobless (I had no car either) my "Support Assistant" told me I should apply for jobs outside my catchment area, and rely on public transport.
I asked how I could do that when the buses stopped running at a ridiculous time in the afternoon, didn't run at all on Sundays (retail entails weekend work!) and the train station meant a good 2 mile walk to my home station and an unspecified walk at my destination?
She fell silent...
She then told me to search online...(I have no computer) "Well, go to the library"...
(It costs money I don't have, and we only get a half-hour free, and some sites are censored and blocked)....
Well, can you borrow a friend's...?
We have just moved to the area, I don't know anyone....
"Well you can use the jobcentre site, here......"
So we looked on the site, and there were absolutely NO jobs available with my requirements, within a 50-mile radius....
"So", I asked..."What would you suggest?"
"Well, she replied, "You just have to demonstrate you ARE looking, so your benefits don't stop...."
"What about all the immigrant applicants you have who don't speak a word of English, come in here, and you sign their documents within 30 seconds of them sitting down?"
She shrugged her shoulders, and wordlessly stamped and signed my document, and slid it back across the table to me.
"See you in a week. Keep looking." she said, as a parting farewell....
Thank you M&S for saving my sanity. At least, menial and basic though it is, I have work, and things are looking up.
It's easier to be green when you're in the black.....
Lol yea 'demonstrating' lol
I mean I'm a fierce supporter of public funded employment insurance, but if you have the means some people are like
"I gotz fired! 55% paid vacation yo!"
Which of course I have never done.
No for real I've never been fired. Too cute apparently.