Big (green) Apple

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

By Richard Anderson

Last week I went to New York City to visit my in-laws. Between the generosity of my wife’s parents, all the fun my little boy had playing in playgrounds, feeding squirrels and pointing out taxi cabs, and the excitement of being in the Big Apple, it was a fantastic vacation.

Great city, New York City. Tons to do. Amazing music scene, all sorts of plays and musicals on Broadway to catch, incredible restaurants, and the people – they’re so friendly these days. Not like in the bad old days when Manhattan was widely considered a festering Gomorrah of vice and violence and everyone was terrified of everyone else.

It really seemed to me that most folks were just waiting for the opportunity to open up and be polite, helpful, kind. Maybe that’s just my naïve, small-town optimism.

What really impressed me about NYC, though, is how hard it appears to be trying to do its part to stem global climate change.

Everywhere I went, I saw signs of the revolution: window displays in stores saying “It’s groovy to be green!”; a cover story on a New York magazine about getting the family involved in going green; hybrid taxi cabs and electric busses … . It was quite encouraging to think that this city of 8.25 million-plus people could actually make a difference if it continues on this transition from mindless carbon-spewing to mindful consumption.

And it got me thinking: In many ways, city life offers a much more sustainable lifestyle than living out in the boondocks of Wyoming, where we not only have to drive just about everywhere – to the grocery story, to school to drop off or pick up the kids, to the doctor’s office, to the bar or restaurant – but more often than not we have to pretty drive long distances to get to those places.

Not only that, but the energy we consume – the gas we burn in our cars, the electricity we need to light our homes and power our computers, the food we eat to energize our bodies, etc. – has to travel hundreds of miles to get here, too. We leave a big carbon footprint living here in Jackson Hole.

And that’s not even taking into account our profligate American lifestyle of jetting hither and yon (to NYC, for example) or whatever other exotic indulgences we allow ourselves.
So, whose living the green life? Us nature lovers who buy organic chard that’s shipped here from 1,000 miles away or the city folk who by and large are happy to admire the mountains from a distance, where they are less likely to harm them? Time will tell.
PERMALINK:
Big (green) Apple | Planet JH News Article: Editorial

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