ninme

The Times - Kyoto? Bali? They’re miles from here
In the part of Georgia where I live, there is no way Americans will be converted to the green cause, by Carol Sarler

Our busy little port city of Brunswick, including its suburbs and neighbouring islands, holds about 50,000 people. Yet there are no buses; the nearest town that has even a rudimentary bus service is 100 miles away. Our phonebook boasts eight taxis, each a one-man operation. Our nearest station is 40 miles away, and the infrequent trains go nowhere useful. The Amtrak route map is astounding, not for where it goes but for where it does not; the once-great American railroad, the single thing to which many historians attribute the very notion of a “United” States, has been systematically destroyed beyond repair.

The time and cost of starting from scratch is incalculable — and in any case, where would you find the will to do so, among millions of adults who have never once used a bus or a train and whose only experience of public transport is aircraft? Children are driven until the moment they may drive themselves; their chosen vehicle is the SUV. A 16-year-old girl neighbour had six friends around last week, which meant a line of seven small buses: one Lolita per eight seats. Another neighbour bought a Toyota Prius, which elicited much admiration. Not for its green credentials, mind, but for its low mpg rate so she can afford the gas to drive, yes, more!

Next week the county will pick up our used Christmas trees — but only for cosmetic decluttering. Such limited recycling as there is has a longer list of what will not be taken than what will; there are no bottle banks and if you want to drive your recyclables to an environmentally conscious tip, you will pay to enter it. The place, as you can imagine, is not humming. Supermarkets make British packaging look skimpy, while checkout packers routinely stick just one or two items into each plastic carrier bag.

Oddly, but truthfully, the guilty are neither stupid nor instinctively thuggish. I think of one friend who, in British green circles, would be assumed to be on the side of the angels: a lawyer who works pro bono for poor workers, who is a pro-choice, Bush-hating Democrat, who would certainly have read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in the Sixties, who admires Al Gore’s eco-war — and who nevertheless heats his pool all winter till steam rises. Heck, he can afford it; who says the Earth can’t? In fairness to him, who indeed?

Well, we have made some progress, evidently. Cars having to get 32 mpg, and 100w lightbulbs out by 2012. I like 100w bulbs. I have four, four light fixtures that use them, and two of those we literally never use. The other two are in the kitchen. I like being able to see. Especially when I’m cooking. Strained eyes and sharp knives don’t mix. As for the cars, there’s so many loopholes in that stupid bill I’m sure it’s entirely meaningless.