Green Grandma Economics

Political journalist Thomas Friedman was recently interviewed on WCCO-TV by esteemed Minnesota reporter Don Shelby. Friedman's text was a green economy. He points out that responding to climate change can actually be good for business as well as for the planet: green technology provides jobs and income, green innovation can save individuals and businesses operating expenses — and, he says at last, with a little shudder, what’s the alternative? You can read a transcript of the interview at http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_072091716.html

Really, what’s the alternative? When we moved from gaslight to electricity some homeowners were sure electrical lighting wouldn’t “last”; my old house still has the gas pipes in the walls, so that once the electricity “fad” was over the owner could go back to good old reliable gas: of course, that never happened.

My great-grandparents loved horses, and to pay for their small racing habit also raised animals for farm service. During the depression horses pulled machinery they couldn’t afford to haul with their repossessed tractor; during the rationing days of the war, they found they could make use of a few supernumerary horses alongside their gasoline ration and feed the nation.

Of course, not all the resourcefulness of our ancestors worked out well for them or us: the whale oil thing has had an awful downside, as has abundant coal for industrial development. We might want to think again before we go wild over asbestos and lead. But a mindset that called us to practice care and moderation in consumption could leave us richer in many ways.

Using only what we can replace or making up for what we use up in one aspect of our lives by restoring another was a lost state of mind for many years. Planting a tree that won’t bloom or bear fruit in your own lifetime can make up in part for that roadtrip to Phoenix; using a pail of greywater from your shower in the petunia beds can make up in part for the swimming pool filled courtesy of the Hoover Dam; refusing a second plastic or paper bag at the store will not just save a little planet for the next generation - it will give you a sense of pride and participation in that important project of saving the Earth for our posterity.

We humans have a genius for both self-destruction and self-sacrifice. If we can exercise our creative impulses as often as we do our selfish genes, we can do great things - and our children’s children and children without a jot of our DNA in their cells will be better for it.

And so will we.

Sustainably Yours,

The Green Grandma