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TODAY Tuesday 18 November 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: "Stay Home and Be Decent"

The quote above is Wendell Berry's response to the question: "What advice would you offer young people to help them solve the environmental crisis?"

He's right, of course, even in the most literal way. Staying home -- not traveling -- is the best thing you can do for the environment. As a general rule, the faster you go and the farther you go, the more damage you occasion. Being decent is a broader injunction, of course, but we can assume that Wendell Berry's notions of decency do not thrive in a 5,000 square foot house loaded with appliances and bathrooms. So the next time somebody at a party asks you "Yes, but what can I do for the environment in my own life?," tell them to live in a small apartment above a downtown drug store, walk to work each morning, buy food from local farmers, and loll around and smoke cigarettes on the weekend. (The cigarettes will keep up demand for one of the few cash crops that favors small cultivators and will help spare society the energy-wasting trouble of maintaining non-smokers alive after the age of 72.)

Naturally, the country is going in the opposite direction. Dwellings are getting bigger (" Monsters of Wellesley, Massachusetts") and gadget-ier, and people are moving around a lot more than they used to. I'm not talking Good Old Days circa 1945, when a typical American consumed 25% of the energy he or she consumes today, but Good Old Days 1977, the first year of the Jimmy Carter administration. Compared to today, we were abstemious stay-at-homes back then.

The details are all laid out in a fine story by Scott Bowles in USA Today last Thursday. Bowles reports on a study just released by the US Department of Transportation. Since 1977, the number of long-distance trips -- defined as 100 miles or more -- has doubled. Americans now take a billion such trips each year, or about four per person. Numbers of trips and miles traveled increased on all forms of transport. But what really surprised researchers, according to Bowles, "...were the methods and motives behind the treks: Only 15.6% of travelers went by plane, and only 22.5% of the trips were business-related...[M]ore than 75% of the country's long-distance trips are taken for vacations, to visit friends and relatives, and to attend to personal matters such as weddings and funerals. And more than 80% of trips are taken in personal vehicles, confirming the country's love affair with the car. Even on trips that covered between 500 to 999 miles, more than three-fourths of travelers drove."

The study also revealed that college graduates and members of households with more than $50,000 annual income made more trips and traveled farther than their fellow citizens. They didn't go much by bus, though; more than half the long-distance bus trips were taken by members of households with less than $25,000 annual income. And more than half the bus trips were taken by non-whites.

Now put yourself in Bill Clinton's shoes. For him to say that this country can return to 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 is a bolder stance than he's been given credit for. Given the trends described in the Department of Transportation study, a downward turn of the curve must anticipate a technological transformation in the energy-burning properties of the vehicles that propel us hither and yon in search of... family, a sense of cohesion, psychological relief, curiosity, fun. The usual.

 

TODAY ON THE SITE

Victoria Chanse has a good summary and critique of websites to look into for the multi-dimensioned issue of Energy and the Environment. Victoria is one of the talented members of the staff of The Energy Foundation, now housed at the old Presidio army base in the northwest of San Francisco. Vistas of the Pacific, the Golden Gate, the Marin Headlands, etc. It's no Broadway, but it's pleasant.

 

Recent "Today" columns:

11/17: World Cups (Soccer; C02)
11/14: Amtrak, My Amtrak
11/13: Tim Wirth's Excellent Adventure
11/12: Monsters of Wellesley, Massachusetts
11/11: Armistice Day and the Next Great War
11/10: Mea Maxima Culpa
11/07: Inflexible Flyers
11/06: Meaningless Votes, Really
11/05: In Praise of SeaWeb
11/04: Reality Check
11/03: Green Loafing

To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.