Were our grandparents the real environmentalists?

Question

Despite not knowing their greenhouse gases from their carbon credits, or that DDT was a bad thing, did they live "greener" lives than we?

By and large, they used less water, imported less food, bought fewer cars, built much smaller homes and threw out way less garbage.

Nearly everything my mom's family (11 including parents) ate was grown, fished or hunted right on their land.

Sinking one's teeth into a juicy drumstick meant first raising the chickens, and throwing away any part of that chicken would have been nothing short of criminal.

Clothes were handed down whenever possible. Frugality became an imperative, burned into their blood. Waste was more than a pile of useless rubbish; it was lost opportunity, something to be eyed with suspicion and disdain.

Doesn't consumerism's magic act depends upon a certain sleight of hand to convince us that it is always better to outsource to others those things that we once did for ourselves?

Perhaps they were "socialist" as well?
For those who owned a threshing machine, it almost became their responsibility to help their neighbors with the harvest. If somebody was sick or broke a leg, you didn't even question it. You just made sure their work got done when it needed to be.

Whether it was sharing space, sharing goods, sharing buying-power, sharing expertise, sharing time or sharing transportation, they simply helped each other out because it was the right thing to do.

Tired Trucker - yes, true enough, but what I'm suggesting is that they were far more frugal and self-sufficient. And I don't think they had styrofoam containers back in the 30s or 40s.

Answer 1

Well, I'm 60, so my grandparents and those of someone who is 20 are quite different.

Anyone who lived through the depression, or through the home front deprivation of the war years (which ALWAYS meant World War II) knew what it was to be thrifty. And after all, environmentalism and plain old-fashioned thrift have a lot in common. Recycle, reuse, make do or do without. We always saved things to be reused in our thrifty Pennsylvania German family, as well as growing our own food and using "what came out the end of the horse or cow" for fertilizer rather than expensive chemicals. Those old Dutchman (Deutch, really) laughed themselves breathless when the stories of damage to crops from artificial fertilizers started to emerge.

We canned (put up in mason jars) and dried and smoked and otherwise preserved food. Believe me, in Pennsylvania, it is wonderful to look out at the snow and have a steaming bowl of corn chowder. Nobody ever went hungry, even if you couldn't get out to the market for weeks at a time.

Clothes were not only handed down while they were still useable, they were cut into strips for rag rugs once they were no longer fit to wear. Quilts were made from the scraps left over when plain, simple cotton clothing was made. Buttons were never purchased; they were collected off old clothes before they were cut up for rags. My button collection got to immense proportions before I finally gave it away when I left California.

Yes, environmentalism is mostly thrift. Plain old sensible thrift.

Answer 2

Absolutely they lived greener lives but I'm not convinced that it was by choice. That's just the way it was. As I think back to my grandparents who were born from 1895 - 1912 , their lives here in Canada were much as you described. They 'grew their own food, hauled drinking water, helped each other (they had a threshing machine), rode horses or walked to school, etc.

Then, in my parents' generation (1931-1932), you could see it slowly erode. My parents had the results of their upbringing so we lived within our means (my mother was a genius with leftovers, sewed alot of our clothes and she had a button basket) but with the spread of mass media, technological inventions and the promotion of consumerism, things like travel and dining out became not only available, but attainable and that became the norm. And because noone knew, or at least it wasn't widely promoted, how harmful things were for the environment, yes, it was a time when many things were wasted, tossed, and used with indiscretion.

That brings it to my generation (1955). I grew up with a combination of the idea that I should live within my means but that I 'needed' many things and worked hard to get them. David Suzuki, a Canadian environmentalist has been promoting environmentalism for 30 years or more. I remember his tv show, 'The Nature of Things' when I was younger but it has been a slow process and it is only in the last dozen years or so that his message has become mainstream. He has gone from a wacky environmentalist to a man who was 'ahead of his time'.

What do we do now? We know what we are doing is harmful but we have grown up in a society of consumerism and we lack the infrastructure and likely the desire to go back to the way it was. So, I don't think the answer is in going back. We have to move forward. But with the knowledge of how everything we do affects the earth and the people and other life in it. We need to hold our governments, the media and big business accountable. The next generation, having grown up with recycling and 'the greenhouse effect' and environmentalism as an issue and not just a dirty word, will play an important role.

So, our grandparents may have been environmentalists by just being alive during that time. Our children will need to be environmentalists by choice. If they don't, the next generation may be forced to be environmentalists just to survive.

P.S. Your question just gave me a whole new appreciation for my mother's outdated but real wood furniture that I have inherited. Gore for president! ;)

Answer 3

Al Gore's residing house additionally serves as his and Tipper's residing house workplace, and that they are not precisely "small time" business enterprise they have their own workforce. On actual of that, the actuality that Al Gore even compiled an inconvenient certainty shows that he cares greater, the place as President Bush lovingly refers to Prince Bandar (you be attentive to, the guy who's father is the chief of Saudi Arabia) as "Bandar Bush". So Al Gore has faults. I admit, i do no longer basically like the belief of him applying that plenty power. yet on the comparable time, i think of it thoroughly offsets his power use whilst he's coaching the entire international approximately international warming. What has President Bush carried out approximately international warming? began a conflict, favors oil companies, loosened environmental standards...there is basically no evaluation. besides that, Crawford is Bush's holiday residing house. Why do no longer you seem @ the flexibility use of his formal place of abode? i think of you will locate quite immediately he's not any the place close to an environmentalist.

Answer 4

I have to disagree. We are far cleaner today than they were back then. I'm 41, So I've been around a while. Recycling was unheard of. Burgers came in styrofoam containers and when you were finished with them you chucked them out the window of your huge car that got at best 10 mpg burning leaded gasoline. Your grandfather went to work every day to a factory that pumped it's smog into the air with no regulations whatsoever, dumping toxic chemicals into the river behind it with no legal repercussions. We are by far greener today than we were then.

The Hudson river for example is just now starting to recover from the damage industrialization did to it. For decades you couldn't swim in it or fish in it.

Answer 5

I agree that our grandparents lived "greener" lives than we do, but I think it was just the standard of living back then, not any conscious effort or thought on saving the planet. In fact, the thoughts back then were to more industrialization, making life easier, and to heck with the planet. Burn the gas, make smoke, just get it done faster and easier.
So the answer is yes and no.

Answer 6

The Media's job is to lower our self-esteem by bombarding us with good looking 'successful' people who have the things they want us to purchase. We live in a society now that puts quantity above quality. the boob tube is to blame for the excessive consumption of things that we really don't need. It was planned this way. To create a mass consumer driven society that are separate from one another. Separation of the people ensures that we cannot stand up together to fight for what is right in this country. Add Religion to the mix, and you have a government over the people, instead of for the people.

Answer 7

They grew their own food can it.
They made dollars go farther and save money.
Save to buy things instead of credit.

We can learn a lot from them.

Answer 8

The reality is that most of us are now living in a world that they way our grandparents lived is not a way that we can live.

Good luck!!!

Answer 9

you are absolutely right. They were and we need to learn from them.