Going green is nothing new – it has just been given a name. Below are excerpts from a cute story circulating on the web that exemplifies what I mean.
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…or didn’t call it green.” “… we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over…
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. ….
… 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… — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes….
…We had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. The TV had a small screen … not … 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. When we packaged a fragile item to… mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. …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. …….
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of …a plastic bottle … of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen. …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. We didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint…..
You get the gist. Some of it is progress and some of it isn’t. It all consumes a lot of energy. In 2012 make it your goal to use less energy and lower your carbon footprint (another new term). You and the planet will benefit.
