Are we getting greener?

[Chancer]

I was forwarded this which I thought was very relevant especially after watching Capital Terre on M6 last night.

 

The Green Thing

 

 

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags 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 cashier responded, "That's our problem today.  Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He 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.

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 the clothes.  Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old 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 a wadded up old newspaper 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 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?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person.

 

The Green Thing

[just john]

[quote user="Chancer"]
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.
[/quote]

And we got paid for it!

[woolybanana]

What a load of cobblers. Previous generations consumed less, were far more conscious of waste and recycled, valued important things like education much more highly than electronic gadgets..... one could go on.

[Chancer]

Perhaps you only read the title then Wooly?

[woolybanana]

Just the small words as the big ones are beyond me! But I do hate the blame game thing and find the whole thing fatuous. In fact, 50 years ago, plastic bags were comparatively rare - you took your own bags. Cars were kept longer and made to last. etc etc etc.

[Pommier]

[quote user="Chancer"]Perhaps you only read the title then Wooly?[/quote]

[Quillan]

When I was a kid we used the train to go on holiday (there was a great program on UK TV about this at the beginning of the year, we all did it apparently). Later on my father used to rent a car (Triumph Herald, that dates it) for our two weeks holiday. My father didn't buy, or could not afford to buy, a car till I was about 14 years old. Now we see whole families with a car each. When we lived in London (Docklands) we couldn't even park our car in our allocated parking space because of other people having so many cars they ran out of parking spaces and used ours. According to GreenMotor 61% of homes have more than one car and the average is three per household. Then there are all these gadgets people have to play games on not to mention computers, mobile phones etc, how much electricity do they take. According to the DTI the average consumption per household (two adults and two children) has almost doubled in the last 20 years. Of course somebody has to generate this electricity and most of it comes from fossil fuel power stations. Now we have the enigma of the electric car, where does that get its power from!

So my personal answer to the question is no, we are not getting greener, far from it.

[Loiseau]

[quote user="Chancer"]Perhaps you only read the title then Wooly?[/quote]

[Val_2]

However....what about all the pollution from coal fires,steam engines and ships and sewage treatment being dumped close to the beaches???

[just john]

[quote user="Val_2"]However....what about all the pollution from  [/quote]

Powerstations, including Coal-fired / Gas-fired / Oil-fired / biomass: straw/gas / animal waste / poultry litter / meat and bone meal / landfill gas sewer gas plants, not to mention diesel trains, trucks, cars etc, Air transport etc

when I was a kid we were using electric trolley bus's now the city is jammed with diesel buses

[Quillan]

Thinking about it a bit more perhaps it's really the same in total but just different in the type of pollution. I remember my nan used to live near Sydenham, I remember the gas works there. The air was yellow, you could cut it with a knife, well almost. The pollution before the 'Clean Air Act' when people burnt coal, was so bad that sometimes you couldn't see more than a couple of feet in front of you in the morning. I didn't have asthma back then but I got it later in live (my mid 30's) and apparently there are lots of kids with it now, far more than before. Is this because the pollution is more 'transparent' now in that you can't see it like in the old days but it's there and there is more of it?

[Val_2]

I think too many parents use too many chemicals like bleach and disinfectant so that the children do not develop immunities to germs and bacteria. Crikey, my mum never rushed for the antibacterial spray when we spilt stuff nor dosed us up with medicines when we had colds which we hardly ever had. Look at all the handwash stuff now you can buy,whats wrong with soap and water? Our cats climb everywhere,leave hairs, the dog moults but we are never ill because our systems have built up a good immunity whereas my sister's kids who have central heating on 24/7 from November,take antibiotics for the least little thing are always ill. I don't think pollution is to blame for the rise in asthma, I think a lot is to do with lifestyle and habits of the parents and diet.

[KathyF]

Spot on, Val.! There was a fascinating article in New Scientist a few years ago, saying the same thing. Children get fewer infections at an early age, so the wrong immune cells are stimulated first, which is thought to be a contributory factor in the bronchial inflammation of asthma. Also house-dust mites, one of the major triggers for asthma, are flourishing as never before in over-heated houses full of carpets and soft-furnishings.

[Théière]

[quote user="Val_2"] and sewage treatment being dumped close to the beaches???[/quote]

Muscle beds and oysters were more plentiful [:)]

[Théière]

[quote user="Val_2"] I don't think pollution is to blame for the rise in asthma, I think a lot is to do with lifestyle and habits of the parents and diet.[/quote]

Does that explain the rise in asthma of domestic pets? Our cat has to have a nebuliser for his asthma.....

[Val_2]

Possibly down to the cleaning agents used i.e. washing powders for animal bedding when cleaned, floor cleaners, washing up liquids for pet bowls - the list is endless plus interior furnishings such as cloth covered sofas and chairs which harbour mites and fleas. Also central heating which breeds germs, my mother always said there is nothing like a good cold spell to kill germs and its right. A lot of people also live in houses witha lot of damp, especially around this area where the older properties have no damp course nor deep foundations if any and you can see the black in corners of ceilings and walls and the spoors from this cause all sorts of breathing and skin problems.

[Rabbie]

Fitted carpets are another great breeding ground for dust, fleas and  oyher nasties

[Estelle Page]

I think we are gradually getting greener, but not at the rate we need to. I have had a look around for great examples of extreme recycling and found a very interesting blog on a giant hot air balloon made out of plastic bags that travels around Europe as a museum. http://www.eurocell.co.uk/9/news/post/1182/the-flying-museum-a-hot-air-balloon-made-of-plastic-bags

It is a great message of what can be achieved through recycling and how we need to start reusing are waste.

[woolybanana]

We don't need to produce so much crap either. Just look at the yogurt section of the supermarket - hundreds of types, all nicely packaged in plastic. Cut it by half.

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

There's no way we're getting greener. It's not being pushed anywhere near hard enough. Look in any supermarket and look at the crap for sale on the shelves. Most of it plastic, and in plastic packaging which isn't necessary. Half the stuff isn't even necessary.

The great pacific garbage patch, and several others in other oceans cannot be controlled, and this will only be added to as time goes on. We are simply producing too much of the wrong stuff, and putting it in very environmentally unfriendly packaging.

I think over the past few decades we're just becoming more aware of how ungreen we are, and it will take a massive human effort to counteract the damage we've already caused.