Life in the Rear-view Mirror

Learning from Our Elders

My 90 year old mother-in-law still hangs up her laundry in the furnace room of her house during the winter months, when hanging it outside is not an option. She has no formal education and is basically illiterate, but she is a much wiser consumer and better environmentalist than most of us. And, for her age, she is in much better health than her immediate family.

She doesn't have a dishwasher and has steadfastly refused to buy one. To this day, she still tends her small garden, growing vegetables organically, as she has done for decades. Moreover, she does her own fruit and vegetable canning, free of preservatives. Living in an environmentally friendly way has been her way of life, and it has been good for her health.

What differentiates her from her children is that she lived through the depression of the 1930s and the Second World War, and still has vivid memories of those times. She grew up during the worst years of the 20th century and was toughened by the experiences. When she immigrated to Canada, she was already a mother of two young children, and was too set in her ways to be spoiled by the many technological developments that ensued.

Her children lived through the aftermath of the devastating war, and have some recollections of those tough times, but they arrived in Toronto as youngsters and quickly adapted to the changing technological environment.

Her grandchildren, on the other hand, have known only good times. For them, it may even turn out to be the best of times. They simply have no idea where she comes from when grandma talks to them about the past because they can't relate to it. Yet, they, and their children, will be the most ill prepared to face the tough times that lie ahead. Just as my mother-in-law was toughened up by having lived in hard times, so will her grandchildren and great grandchildren. By then, a new cycle will have begun.

When my family arrived in Toronto, one of our first impressions was the great quantity of waste that Torontonians produced. Coming from a war-torn country, the wastefulness was not only notable, it was shockingly so. Per capita waste generation in Toronto has grown steadily since then. The only thing that changed in the last decade is that now we Recycle some of our waste.

Unfortunately, most people still don't practice the other two Rs of environmental preservation. They still need to learn about Reduce and Reuse, the two that matter most because they are directly linked to the essential goal of reducing consumption.

Growing up, I didn't have to learn about the three Rs in school: I learned them out of necessity at home. And this is why we were shocked by the wastefulness of Torontonians. However, we were told that this was the land of opportunity, and that, with the advent of nuclear power, electricity would be too cheap to metre; so we started enjoying the good life, forgetting about the three Rs. We partied like there was no tomorrow, some more than others, but like any party, sooner or later it ends, and the hangover begins.

As everyone knows, necessity is the mother of invention, and when the need arises, people will become strict adherents of the three Rs and the four principles expounded in an earlier chapter. For most people it will seem and feel terrible, but for my mother-in-law looking down from above, when that time comes, it will seem like a return to more normal times. If I'm lucky, I will also be up there looking down when the party ends.

Just as my mother-in-law's children didn't learn to be conscientious consumers like her, neither have her grandchildren, nor is there hope that the great grandchildren will, unless forced by circumstances, such as overpopulation and scarcity of resources. However, it doesn't mean that their world will be vastly different, although it would seem so to them. They will learn to live with less and become better human beings for it.

For the very poor, nothing ever changes. They will continue to suffer and die of hunger and disease by the tens of millions annually. It's unfair, unjust, and immoral, but the ruling class has tilted the playing field in their own favour since man started walking on earth.

The super rich will also see no change. They will continue to steal from the masses unabashedly, as they have been doing from time immemorial: there will be no impact on their lifestyle.

Those in the middle, many of whom will join the ranks of the poor, will experience the greatest changes. That's what we get by extrapolating the past into the future, but the future may have many surprises that we can't even begin to imagine, let alone predict. So this is just one of many possible scenarios.

What will actually happen, no one knows. Man's ingenuity is almost limitless. There may be discoveries ahead that will change us, and our world, for the better. The only sure thing is that the future will not unfold as anyone thinks it will.

Will it continue to be a dog-eat-dog world? Or will it be a kinder, gentler, and more considerate one, where the community becomes more important than the individual? It will depend on our collective actions. If we want the latter outcome, our focus has to be more on the common good because we all live in the same space ship and breathe the same air.

Our individual actions, no matter how small, will matter. We don't have to make drastic changes to have a significant impact. What's important is that we move in the right direction. If we do that, even baby steps will help because their effect is compounded over time, just like interest on a savings account.

I hope that we will all become a bit more like my mother-in-law: a frugal consumer and a true environmentalist. Even though she doesn't know the meaning of the word, she is one at heart. Many of us talk about it, but few do anything. We have to lead with actions, not words!

And speaking of both, a few years ago, while walking through a small town in northern Spain, I saw a big sign on a wall that said, 'No Wind Turbines'. It's very possible that the individual who spray-painted those words on the sign thought himself, or herself, an environmentalist. The author might have thought that by rejecting wind turbines he or she was acting to protect the town from their harmful effects: a noble action. However, to a passer-by like me, it gave the message that coal-fired generation was preferred, as long as it was in somebody else's backyard!

If that individual had put up a big sign saying, 'Let's Consume Less so We Don't Have to Build Wind Turbines in Our Pretty Little Town', there would have been no doubt, at least in my mind, that he or she was a true environmentalist, like my mother-in-law.

All forms of electricity generation produce, or have the potential to produce, harmful effects. However, there is no question that generating electricity from wind turbines is an environmentally better way than producing it from burning coal. Therefore, even when we start consuming less, we need to switch electricity generation from the more polluting to the less polluting technologies.

The 'Not In My Backyard' approach of the past is counterproductive. For the benefit of Mother Earth, we need to say, 'Yes. In My Backyard' to projects like windmills that reduce pollution and contamination of our space ship. At the same time, we need to say, 'Yes' to adequate compensation for the towns and communities that accept the risk of power generating technology because they suffer the consequences for society's greater good. When power companies start dealing honestly and fairly with affected communities, the 'Not In My Backyard' syndrome will disappear.

Governments and corporations haven't always dealt fairly and honestly with affected communities: deception has been their favoured approach. Likewise, environmental groups have been just as guilty in misinforming and misleading the public. For example, nuclear-generated electricity is one of the most environmentally friendly, and the only one that can compete and replace coal, at least for now. However, misguided environmental groups, rather than promoting it, helped to kill it in its tracks. Now we are paying the price with a more contaminated biosphere and its consequential health problems. It's time for change! We're running out of time to play games!