DJH's Journal

Every night I go to bed and think about a problem in the world, or a challenge, or some massive project that somebody should just do someday. I'm not sure why I do it, but I've managed to construct all of the following in my pre-sleep sessions:

a) An underground super-fast monorail from Los Angeles to Beijing

b) Flying car / jetpack

c) A new political party who's platform I actually like...

...and so on.

I should also mention that I'm trying hard to be "green". I strongly believe in the philosophy of just consuming less of the world's resources. We (and by "we", I mean most Americans) consume pathetically huge amounts of resources in everything we do every day - you needn't look farther than your own trash can to believe it. I drive a hybrid, I try to carefully watch my consumption of water (a precious resource in California), gas, electricity, etc. I'm not a green nut - i.e. I haven't installed solar panels (yet), but I like to opt for the green solution if possible.

So, the other night I'm lying in bed and I realized something - for all my efforts to be green, I'm likely less green now than my family and I were when we were kids. We like to think of the 60's and 70's as wasteful years with lots of plastic and smog, but there were also plenty of things we did then which, as America has gotten wealthier, we do differently now. Some examples:

a) Driving: Virtually everyone I know drives more now than they did when they were a kid. It used to be a big event to drive 2 hours; now we live farther from work and we hop in the car at whim to go to Vegas. And I won't even get into my rant on how pathetic most American car fuel efficiency remains, even in 2008.  I'd like to know why anyone who doesn't a) carry large items for work, or b) have more than 3 kids, drives an SUV. We used to call them station wagons.

b) Housing: The average American house is more than 50% larger now than it was in the 1970's. Which means more heating, more cooling. I can make my house as efficient as possible, and I try, but it's still just fundamentally less efficient to both build and live in a bigger place.  I know a few courageous people who have the money for a bigger place, but choose to live small. Good for them.

c) Planes / Travel: We travel much, much more than we used to. I've probably been on 50 plane flights this year. Plane travel is so much less special than it used to be, and I think we're all saddened at how it's gone from an exciting, fascinating luxury to a step below a public bus. I'd say the worst excess is private jets, which regardless of their cost to the owner, are probably the single worst environmental violation an individual can commit. I'm not sure what the solution is here, except to understand this impact and ameliorate it in other ways.

d)  Food: When I was a kid, your supermarket stocked what could be driven in from a few hundreds miles away. We ate local because, well, you didn't have a choice. Now,so much energy is put into making sure we have bananas in our supermarket in January.  Suddenly, we're all proud of ourselves when we "buy local"...well, we were doing that for a long, long time...we just got stupid in the last 20 years and we should undo that. Same goes for water that is flown in from Fiji - I am amazed and appalled that Fiji Water calls itself good for the planet. Good for the planet is for you to drink the water out of your own tap.

e) Personal energy consumption: Sure, we've got more and more devices plugged in all over the place...and I find it hard to complain about that...can't really avoid having a computer, and I don't think anyone's gonna sacrifice their 50" plasma TV for the sake of the environment. But I'm amazed at the people I know who leave on their air conditioning all day, run water just because they can, leave their cars running while they talk on the phone for 1/2 hour, etc. Mostly, I'm fascinated that they choose to just throw money out the window...seriously, what's the point of running your air conditioning when you're not home?

My rant is starting to wander...I guess my big realization is that I'm starting to think of "green" as more of a lifestyle choice, and a positive one at that. Think of the European city model, with more of an emphasis on public transportation and smaller, more urban houses. Think of our ancestors even a generation or two ago, when families would make do with one car, or none, and they would eat cuisine local to where they lived and the season they were in. Basically, instead of focusing so hard on being "green", let's just cut out the excess.

Me.