LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 5/28/08
BAD ECONOMY GOOD FOR GREEN
My friend Toni is almost religious about living green. An air conditioner would never defile her home. In winter, she turns on the heat only when it's too cold for a sweater. We are both concerned about the planet's environment, but very aware that either of us can do little to help it except follow the motto hanging in each of our basements: think globally, act locally.
Last week, we were shopping in the produce section of a supermarket, and as everyone does these days, gasping in dismay at how much prices have increased yet again. Toni looked at the perfectly ripe mango she was beginning to put in her home-made fabric grocery tote, and then gently put it back, shaking her head slowly. "Mangoes have become a luxury," she said in astonishment.
I thought it was funny. Despite her pro-planet sensibilities, Toni was allowing her mango-buying to rest on price, rather than pollution. I could not resist saying something about the ecological implications of purchasing this commonplace fruit which is grown on tropical plantations that have been carved from former rain forests, and must be transported thousands of miles by an oil-consuming engine, and then be stored in a warehouse that gobbles energy to make the air artificially cool to preserve those crates of tropical fruit until they can end up displayed in the produce section of an American supermarket.
For a moment, my friend was torn between a snit and a snicker, but the snicker won out. "Our bad economy will be good for the planet," she said with sudden realization. And we both giggled.
It's really ironic. The downward spiral of the U. S. economy is forcing more actual green action than any previous activity from either corporate or public realms. My neighbor, who works about six miles from home, now bikes to work instead of driving his large SUV. A family down the street planned to drive their luxurious seven-mile-a-gallon motorhome to California for a beach vacation; now they are planning a lakeside trip 50 miles from home.
Manufacturers and sellers of motorhomes no longer have a plethora of middle class customers; sales of these large snail shells fell by ten percent in 2007, and that was before gas prices began the latest upward spike. The open doors of lenders that allowed the purchase of gas-guzzling RV's and boats have slammed shut.
People don't possess the spare cash they once did, and that is affecting corporate manufacturers and sellers that depend on a constant flow of middle class income. No one seems to have ever thought about a trickle-up economic theory.
The economic credit crunch is even saving trees. Forest land was being ever more leveled to build new homes for the upwardly mobile who wanted the status of living higher in the hills. Now many mini-mansions sit half finished, with developers in a quandary because, despite paying campaign contributions to local politicians who thanked them with zoning variances, profits are stalled. The over-extended middle class customers that developers depended on can no longer get mortgage loans so easily, and those potential buyers in turn have no buyers for their current homes, the value of which sinks daily.
The U. S. financial downturn will even be good for our health. "No, you don't need any popcorn," I heard a mother say to her kids at a theatre, as she steered them away from the large tubs of white kernels drenched in artificially colored fat. "No, McDonald's costs too much, let's buy some ground beef and I'll make you a burger," a friend said to her husband's suggestion that they stop for some fast food. Many home refrigerators are no longer stocked as fully, the sales of sugary soft drinks and fattening snacks are down. The cure for our much discussed obesity 'epidemic' may just be that falling finances will force everyone to eat healthier and get more exercise.
We all know the saying, "every cloud has a silver lining." But the predicted recession, the fall of the dollar, the record price of oil; the linings of all those clouds are golden.
Wina Sturgeon, Editor