May 2012

First came Greenpeace’s Angry Kid:

Now come ED’s clock kids:

Why do big environmental groups think adults like being lectured by bossy tweens? The tone of the latter is at least a pit more pleading than demanding, but they’re both obnoxious. Why don’t we ratify the Kyoto Protocol? Because I said so, young man, that’s why. Now go to your room.

Christine, I loved your post about the new trendy green fashions. Via Fark I’ve just come across something I think tops it: a new 400 GBP (on eBay) shopping bag with the legend, “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” (Original price, 5 GBP). Except in environments where people purchase food to prepare at home every day or shop for clothes weekly, I can’t see how this makes sense. People just buy too much to carry home in a reusable bag that’s also small enough to be worthwhile to carry to the store. Paul Weyrich, the biggest booster of mass transit I know, knows that nobody uses mass transit for shopping. Before cars, he points out, nearly all stores delivered.

Now, Sainsbury, the biggest British Grocer, is going to try to sell 20,000 of these reuseable bags. Boutiques have already sold out.

But even if people decide that they must have some alternative to plastic bags, this particular bag seems really obnoxious. It seems to have no special qualities except for the logo that basically says: “I’m more environmentally aware than you are.” If Sainsbury’s managers really think they can boost margins or get props with the public by convincing customers to schlep these things around, well, all power to them. But, anyone who pays more than 5 GBP for one of these things really needs to get a life.

We used a clothesline when I was growing up, but were forever running outside to grab the clothes when the sky darkened.  In the North-East of England, you see, it rains a lot.

Of course, the washing machine and clothesline were a step up from the machinery my grandmother had in her kitchen: a washboard, poss-tub and mangle.  Want to know what those did?  Here’s a handy pictorial guide.

People with no memory of this era should remember just what you had to go through to get the clothes into a state that they could be air-dried.

It seems recent posts by myself and Fran were all too prescient. The clothesline is apparently merely beginning its green-inspired comeback. Following Kathy Hughes’ New York Times article from the 12th is today’s Marilyn Gardner piece in the Christian Science Monitor:

But now the low-tech clothesline may be poised to stage a modest comeback. In an age of global warming, lists of energy-saving tips routinely include suggestions such as “Hang clothes outdoors to dry when possible.”

It’s good advice, of course. A dryer is typically the second biggest electricity-using appliance after the refrigerator, according to the website laundrylist.org. It costs about $85 a year to operate. Multiply that by the nation’s 88 million dryers, and the energy costs spiral.

The dryer, with its round-the-clock availability and shiny push-button convenience, has also created energy-wasting habits. As one mother says, “I’ve noticed the big conversation about energy-saving appliances. Where is the conversation about the habits of the people who use these appliances? Many of my friends who have teenagers say that their children wear an outfit only once before they put it into the laundry hamper. One of my friends only uses her bath towel once.”

That kind of wastefulness is on the minds of hotel executives, too. More and more hotels are placing small cards in the bathroom, spelling out how many gallons of water and how much soap they use each month. They encourage guests to consider forgoing a daily change of towels and sheets.

Does anyone else remember reading about (or living through) the middle of the 20th century, when indoor plumbing, mechanical washing machines, chemical detergents, and automated appliances were cosidered hygienic, progressive and even…liberating? One can only imagine what any of the nation’s feminist pioneers would think of the call for women (and it is still mostly women who handle laundry chores in U.S. households) to return to the days of lugging heavy baskets of wet laundry into their backyards to hang up, only to have to spend hours later ironing every piece of clothing and linen.

Could this be your environmentally-friendly future?

Given this momentum, I can now confidently predict that the next residential enviro-trend will be the daub and wattle hut. After all, the New York Times “Style” section has already ran a feature on stylish homeonwers retro-fitting their multi-million dollar houses with – wait for it – dirt floors. Clearly the Neolithic mud hut is the next logicial step.