Going Green

 

Thursday, June 25, 2009

 

We live with the threat of rain nearly every day these days, reminding me of a Graham Green novel set in Africa where every afternoon saw a deluge.

Pauly once told me one effect of global warming would be to give the New York area the same weather Florida enjoys.

Since I hate heat and humidity, I’ve always hated Florida and avoiding going there.

It I don’t die before we become Florida, I might have to seek refuge farther north, being forced out of where I live not by greedy developers but by too many cars, air conditioning and other labor saving appliances.

Rain doesn’t stop the landscapers hired by the state to take care of the houses next door and across the street where the mentally disabled live.

The contractors come with leaf blowers or snow blowers whether the walks need to be cleared or not, and in all sorts of weather.

At one point last winter, they came just after midnight to clear the snow, gasoline blowers roaring up the alley outside our bedroom window, waking us better than any alarm.

In the pouring rain they come to blow leaves or seeds, even when neither can be easily moved by such devices.

Landscapers see themselves a macho men, grown tough by hard work outdoors. I’ve often seen them as the polar opposite of interior designers, who rely on taste rather than brute strength.

But labor-saving devices such as leaf blowers seem to blur the distinctions for me, since the manly men of the landscape trade seem to labor less and less and pollute the world more and more.

I also find the proliferation of “pleasure vehicles” a bit disturbing, such as off-road vehicles and jet skis.

Most of the people riding either are obnoxious curs with not respect for the environment, perfectly willing to ruin the outdoors they need for their personal entertainment.

While I dislike the concept of recreational hunting, at least the hunters want to preserve the environment, content to kill only what lives in it – leaving the real slaughter to urban sprawl and developers who put houses where animals live.

Over the last few months, I’ve heard over and over how we ought to “go green,” meaning “no impact” with our construction and our living. But green public officials miss the point. As much as I would like to outlaw cars, leaf blowers, snow blowers, jet skis and other atrocities of the modern world, the problem remains overpopulation.

We simply breed too much and have to some how cope with what comes out.

Born again Christians and other rail against abortion, then continue to pop kids out like there is no tomorrow.

Guess what, there isn’t going to be tomorrow, until we stop over-breeding.

But we never will. Capitalism simply won’t stand for it. Our economy depends on ever expanding markets, which may explain why so many Born Again Christians loved Ronald Reagan. We need more kids so we can build more cars, houses, toys, schools, and such to keep the money flowing into capitalist pockets.

That’s what it really means to “go green.”

Or perhaps we really mean “go GREED.”