A race to save the planet

When my friend Elizabeth drops her son off at school in Connecticut, the moms gather in the courtyard to chat. There is a cool new feature to their SUVs which allows them to lock the doors while leaving the engine on. They stand around, a bunch of them, having a nice chat, while their motors idle in the parking lot, keeping air conditioners going in cars that have no one in them and are going nowhere.

I write this without judgment. People have grown up striving all their lives to be successful in a culture that tells us that a sign of our success is to waste with impunity. "I've worked all my life not to have to worry whether the car engine is on ten minutes more than it has to be," the thinking goes. I get it. You worry about the pennies wasted and then you find yourself in a position where you don't want to worry anymore. You don't want some environmentalist telling you to start biting your nails again.

So it's all very well to argue that responsibility for pollution in our society belongs to the consumers and that we have to alter consumer behavior. The problem then is how to you convince people like the moms outside my friend Elizabeth's school to change? That's why other people believe that its the companies and the Government we have to tackle. That, in turn, begs the question of how you get government to change when the Democrats, for example, decided not to include fuel efficiency standards for cars in the recent energy bill.

There should be no argument about which route to take--no fighting across the ideological divide between personal and government responsibility. The problem we face is too big for infighting. The answer, I think, is to pursue all of it. There should be a race between the people trying to green Government, the people trying to green consumers and the people trying to green companies. As soon as one of use crosses the finish line, we all win. 

Comments

[Tom Frost Jr.]

_What_ finish line?

[Melisa Nichols]

Yesterday I heard on NPR that classrooms in England use Al Gore's "An Incovenient Truth" as required study for global warming. A judge has ruled that teachers now must first explain to students that Al Gore's findings are extreme and his findings not accurate. It's funny the line of thinking in some people's heads... does it really matter if the findings are or are not "extreme"? Is trying to be more conscience and conservative of our spending, wasting, and consuming really dictated by a few percentage points, degrees, and scienific results?
We should all do our part as best we can and urge others, companies and goverment to do theirs. The "green" finish line will be reached when we all chip in regardless of how bad it could get or not.

[the opoponax]

By whose authority is An Inconvenient Truth "extreme" and "not accurate"?

Just about every scientist who isn't on the payroll of an oil company agrees that climate change due to human intervention is a fact, and the only way to avert disaster is to cut our carbon emissions, most likely by reducing our dependence on petroleum.

I could see the need for a disclaimer about Inconvenient Truth not being an approved science text (Gore not being an actual climate change scientist), and in fact I don't think that book makes a great science text. But extreme? Not factually accurate?

[the opoponax]

Oh, and more on topic, all I have to say about things like the mothers leaving the car running while they stand around outside is that there are some days I'm almost certain that there's really nothing we can do to stem the tide, and that we can only prepare for eventual disaster and hope for the best. I know it's pessimistic, but when the car companies include a feature that specifically promotes the waste of oil for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and not only do consumers get behind that but actually convince themselves that this is a useful advantage, well, I just don't know what we can do if everyone is just THAT determined to screw us all.

[Susan Och]

I'm afraid I'm one of those people who will just interrupt the conversation and ask people to turn off their engines. So what if I'm spurned the first or second time? The discussion gives me a chance to figure out what people are thinking about. Maybe I'll change their minds this time. Maybe next time. I'll learn from the exchange anyway.

And when the conversation takes place at school, I'm giving my kids a "responsible adult" role model. The other moms may not realize it for a long time, but everybody benefits when there are kids in the group who can say "Wait! This isn't right! Let's do something smarter!"

[jessica]

Uh oh, you're gonna have these people on you: http://begthequestion.info/

[Katy]

Look at the civil rights acts, legistation can stem the tide of the way our society opperates while changings people's views and perceptions.

[katecontinued]

Good news for all of us today. Al Gore:

"I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."

—Al Gore, who also noted he will donate his portion of the $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a "bipartisan nonprofit organization devoted to conveying the urgency of solving the climate crisis."

[mike]

Hey, opoponax - look up the actual court ruling for the matter or a newspaper article about it. Bottom line - you're getting indignantly worked up over your misunderstanding a third-hand recollection.

[Alison]

I have a friend who has one of these neat devices. At first I scorned it, because of the wasted gas and then after a summer of more days about 90 than below, I decided I'd probably use it too, if my car had such a feature. As long as our vehicles run fossil fuels and pollute what difference does it really make for these moms to waste a bit more gas? They already drove the gas guzzlers to the school versus the kids walking, biking or taking the bus. Probably, because as in my area of the world other options just aren't set up. Alternative transportation set-ups suck or non-existent and we are understandably addicted to our cars. Gov't and business really need to take responsibility to change the infrastructure...and consumers need to educate fellow consumers about our options.

[Bubba]

I like this blog, and the whole No Impact experiment. But perhaps it needs some tenacity and vigor.

“I write this without judgment”. I think judgment, harsh even, is exactly what is needed.

1) Idling is a colossal waste, and unnecessary.

2) SUVs – we have to get rid of these vanity motivated leviathans

3) Perhaps distance is an issue, but why aren’t these kids walking to school?

Peak oil is hitting the mainstream press. An article on peak oil was published in the Journal o the American Medical Association (JAMA). JAMA is a high profile, very reputable, peer reviewed medical journal.

Peak oil and climate change THREATEN our ability of society to provide even basic food, water, and heat to civilization.

We need a fundamental change in attitude.

Bubba

[James Chen]

Does your friend Elizabeth carpool? Is she capable of asking her fellow moms to turn off their engines and perhaps opening the car windows a bit? Whatever happened to common sense? For the looks of it (Al Gore winning the Nobel "Peace" Prize), common sense has flown the coop.

As for "Peak Oil", what is a medical journal doing by publishing articles on energy policy? As a said earlier, common sense has left the building...

[jeff]

It's not the wasting of a little more fuel that offends me. It's the indifferent attitude that allows reasoning like - we've wasted so much, who cares if we waste a little more. What makes it even worse is that it's being done around kids. Believe it or not, they notice what adults do and they learn from it.

Alternative transportation? Whether or not there's a bus system I can think of plenty of alternatives to gas guzzlers and idling them for no reason. I wonder if these women ever think about their contributions to the quality of the air their children breath. SUV emissions are far worse than most passenger cars on the road.

And when did Americans develop such delicate constitutions that temperatures over 90 degrees pose such a problem. We're in BIG trouble because it's only going to get warmer.

[misty jo]

colin,

thanks for living simply and through that being an example, encouraging other people to think and change through the way you live, as well as with your words. for those who can't read your blog, or choose not to, what they see you do is the catalyst. you are a catalyst of change.

of course idling is a waste. driving alone is a waste... as is the cd player that is plugged in and not being used because we're now listening to XM radio the coffee shop i'm sitting in, writing a paper with free wireless, good tea, a great atmosphere, and a place to charge my portable computer... but doesn't all of it spring out of a convenience that we, as americans, the affluent "west", feel because we are "entitled" to have it?

the struggle is real, and the issues are to.

perhaps it is my young idealism, but i believe there is always hope.

strive.

[Nell]

The New Yorker this week had a short piece on idling. The issue there was pollution -- if these women aren't motivated by the fact that they are wasting gas, maybe the impact on their children's lungs would move them. Perhaps mentioning the piece in the New Yorker would be a less confrontational way of raising the issue.

[the opoponax]

Allison -

A hot summer makes you actually want to pointlessly spew more CO2 into the atmosphere WHY, exactly? Because that 15 seconds of heat is too much to bear in order to try and combat climate change?

Funny, the extra-hot summers of recent years cause me to worry more about global warming, not to shrug off my responsibility to conserve.

Also, the idea that because it's a fact of life that some people need cars, therefore it's OK for everyone to mindlessly waste energy, is completely illogical at best.

Institutional change is integral, but it can't compensate for individuals' wasteful entitlement.

[Cynthia]

In the state of Colorado, it is unlawful to leave a running car unattended. Not for the purpose of the environment mind you, but more for the problems it causes when some moron leaves the car running and another comes along to steal the car. Like breaking the window is some kind of an obstacle when locked. Yeah. Right. I believe that eventually, word of mouth will cut back on the unattended, running vehicles when the tickets get handed out. There are also some schools in this region that post signs that parents are not allowed to run their engines idle while waiting to pick their kids up in the school zones.

[Laura]

Cheers to Susan Och for teaching and leading by example! Well said. :)

I agree with Bubba on the judgement issue. The second definition (dictionary.com) of judgement is "the ability to judge, make a decision, or form an opinion objectively, authoritatively, and wisely, esp. in matters affecting action; good sense; discretion: a man of sound judgment."

Everyone should be making judgements; friendly, well informed, judicious, caring, applicable, prompt judgements. Our lives depend on it. I worry that I will come off as sounding cheezy when I say 'lives depend on it' but it really does feel true to me. In talking with the moms who idle their cars someone may very well help them understand that they are, in the long and short term, physically harming their children. Would we keep our mouths shut if a mom was letting her child lay down in the middle of a busy street? Even just for 10 minutes?

[Neelofer Qadir]

The opoponax and others interested,

Here is a link to the BBC article that lists the 9 issues with An Inconvenient Truth that must be addressed when the film is shown in English schools.

[the opoponax]

In re the BBC article -- wow, real life is more like Wikipedia every day...

[Optimus]

re: the BBC article on the "errors" in An Inconvenient Truth -->

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/10/an_error_is_not_the_same_thing.php

[Vicki]

I drive an SUV although I don't leave my car running when I am not in it. The reason I drive an SUV is becuase I have 3 boys and haul them, their friends, their sports equipment and often feed from the feed store for the various animals we have. It isn't a vanity thing and I don't understand that accusation. Af for Gore - don't get me started. His "documentary" could use some convenient truths if you want my opinion. I don't believe the premise of his movie and I can't understand people who support Gore when he isn't willing to make the changes he expects everyone else to make. He is a hypocrite.

[Sasha]

"As soon as one of use crosses the finish line, we all win."

Colin, you really put things so beautifully simply. I think that you are right, and that people "crossing the finish line" will be what really helps others to see how simple and beneficial these ways of living can feel once one starts to question or reconsider the way she of he has figured things up until then. I think that to some it feels like en enormous leap of faith to believe that living a voluntarily simple life can make you just as happy (if not more so) than living and working to acquire all those things that we're told we need in order to appear successful, happy and together. Getting those things is a never-ending task, as they just keep coming out with more and more. It seems to me that living simply is something you can just, do.
Thanks,
Sasha

[Tom Frost Jr.]

No problem, Vicki. And I have an 8 mpg, International CO1800 truck that I still use and stopped apologizing for years ago, and I sometimes leave it not only running but _in_ _gear_ when I get out of it (not when it's on the road but when I'm picking up bales from the field, and my helpers - who consist largely of those spoiled Gen-M'ers that the original post was about, whose mommies drove them fewer miles than we walked, to school - missed a bale because they were talking on their cellphones and therefore need to be shown how it's done). And with the one of my motor vehicles that I leave running but _not_ in gear - a 20 mpg Tacoma (which carries 180 Sunday newspapers because that same generation of kids, as _another_ result of the aforementioned spoiling, isn't interested in doing _that_ kind of work either, so over the last decade or two, small paper routes that could be done by bike have been replaced with these bigger, motorized routes) - I'd _like_ to have a more convenient way than the extra key that I wear around my neck, for locking it when it's idling without me in it, i.e. when I get out to sprint to the doorsteps of the customers' houses in batches of usually only one or two houses. News flash for apparently everybody except Vicki: Starting up an engine wastes more gas than leaving it idling for such short periods, and therefore, the company that markets whatever that device is, likely _was_ considering fuel-saving and can't help it if the consumers buying it didn't have the same motive.

[Tom Frost Jr.]

I also meant to second Vicki's comment that Gore is a hypocrite. Indeed, the biggest single way that he lost my vote in 2000 was by showing up on TV with stupid daytime running lights on his city man's farm truck. He could have set an example by whipping out a sledgehammer right then and smashing those energy-wasting eyesores. That would have set a _perfect_ example of how to cancel out any perceived need to drill ANWR, because that's about the ball park of how much energy DRLs waste nationally. But instead, like _counterfeit_ "leaders" everywhere, he chose to ignore them and thereby help promote them.