This note from Not Larry Sabato's Twitter feed caught my eye:
No recycling at Mark Warner Pig Roast.Whenever I see Ben, the blogger who writes Not Larry Sabato, he never fails to rub it in The Green Miles' face that he has a smaller carbon footprint than I do. (I have to carpool to an office out in Reston two days a week while Ben doesn't even own a car. Although I wonder how many flights a year he takes? We may need to do a The Green Miles vs. Not Larry Sabato carbon weigh-in. Where was I?) Anyway, I'm not surprised Ben was watching out for a green faux pas.
I saw some half-hearted eco-efforts myself at the Arlington Democrats Chili Cookoff on Labor Day. There was recycling and several of the cooks prepared vegetarian chili or used locally-grown ingredients. But there were also plastic forks, styrofoam bowls and napkins and fliers not made out of recycled material. Eco-friendly alternatives are available at just about every grocery store in the DC area these days, so there's no excuse for not buying green.
Most hypocritical -- ice chests of bottled water. The Cookoff took place at the Lyon Park Community Center, which has a kitchen with running water. Democrats on the Arlington County Board have pledged to avoid bottled water whenever possible and county agencies have done a great job of following through. So why is bottled water unacceptable at county events, but made available at virtually every Arlington Democrats event?I don't want to sound like a nattering nabob of negativism. National Democrats certainly broke new ground on holding a sustainable event with their extensive efforts to green the Democratic National Convention. And if we're going to pass legislation to slow climate change and make America more energy independent next year, it's Democrats like Mark Warner who are going to make it happen.
But here's the thing -- consumers don't change habits easily. They need to be shown that going green is both important and hassle-free (which is one of the reasons I started this here blog). Every time you bust out the bottled water, you're sending uncertain consumers a subtle message this all that green stuff is just a fad -- it's OK to fall back into those old habits at the first sign of possible inconvenience.
The bottom line is, if you're going to talk the talk on going green, you have to walk the walk. If Democrats won't take every reasonable step to green their events, who will?
"If my neighbor is not doing it, why should I?" is generally the mentality of the common person. It is definitely "in" to go green right now, but if the leaders preaching the importance of taking care of the environment aren't practicing it, others will follow suit. They'll think, "just this once" it's ok - how much could my bottle-a-day habit really make a difference if they went through hundreds at just this one event?
ReplyDeleteIt's a slippery slope - soon it will be a fad to rebel against the green movement - global warming is just God hugging us tighter, right?
Except Ben was wrong. I saw recycling bins set up in front of the beer truck.
ReplyDeleteOne recycling bin location at a 7,000 person event doesn't exactly bowl me over. I didn't even get into what might be the number one environmental concern about the event -- from what I've heard, no buses or shared transit options at all.
ReplyDeleteShared transit could be an option if the local committees wanted to take it on. They would have to put buses into their budget for the pig roast. Some county committees might not be big enough or populated with enough people to do this so carpooling (which I did) might be an option.
ReplyDeleteThere were also recycling bins all over the place at the pig roast. I saw Ben standing by one during the event.
Kevin, I'm sure Sen. Warner made sure there were no disposables, paper products were made from recycled material, the meat was all local and sustainably produced, and excess food was composted ... right? And all those Warner campaign posters and yard signs, those are printed on recycled material too ... right?
ReplyDeleteI didn't get into any of that because the point is not to argue about this recycling bin or that recycling bin. That's why I didn't bother investigating Ben's recycling Twitter -- that's just one of a dozen things I'm sure I could've nitpicked.
The point is, Democrats need to pay attention to the small stuff. VJP and Kevin, if you have any feeback on that, it'd be appreciated.
Recycling the end product is nothing to be impressed by, and ultimately not what I saw as the point of this post. Perhaps since I wasn't at the event I didn't rush to defend and kept actually reading.
ReplyDeleteKevin, kudos to you for carpooling. It seems, however, that with such a large turnout anticipated, surely a few hours of planning by Warner's people or the local committees could have resulted in shared transit options. It's just lazy and cheap that no one planned anything. Even a rideshare space or something could have been done. If the committees didn't have it in their budgets, I'm willing to bet that many people would opt to take group transit for a few extra bucks to cover the cost given the positive impact it would have on the environment AND ease of transport.
I can't comment on Warner's signs as I haven't seen them up close and personal and there were none at the event.
ReplyDeleteAs for carpooling - that is exactly what I did coming from Norfolk. Nearly everyone I saw from my area was a part of the Central Committee, which met up in that neck of the woods the day before and the day of the Warner event. Whether they carpooled or not I don't know.
(One point I think needs to be made: this was not a campaign event for Mark Warner. It was a large party organized by and paid for out of personal funds. That is not an excuse for greening or not greening, just simply what is.)