Planet Green
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Holter Graham is the co-host of Wa$ted! and writes about his experiences on the show and going green in the world at large.
Annabelle and I spent some quality time in Jersey while shooting Wa$ted!. I will leave a spot here for mean-spirited jokes, and then move on. Because, in fact, The Garden State has as much, if not more, to offer than any other American locale. Do you have 1.1 million acres of Pine Barrens? All right then. Shut up.
While in Jersey we spent time with a good-sized family inhabiting different levels of a single home. The matriarch emigrated to this country and is still the force holding her family together. And you know what? She's helping hold the planet together, too.
You do not have to go very far back in American cultural history to find the split between extended family and nuclear family. In fact it closely parallels the growth of the Nuclear Age and the post-war boom in this country, when returning soldiers, the GI bill, and the prosperity we got from helping rebuild and resupply a devastated Europe, allowed young families to strike out on their own and get their own plot of land, with a chicken in every pot and a postage-stamp lawn to call their own.
Well, if you multiply that by the current US population, that's too many chickens and too many lawn chemicals, and the planet is beginning to strain under the weight. While it is great to have a space and home of your own for a nuclear family, it also spreads out the resource requirements for the land, creates greater fuel-emissions from family-visit travel, and expands on the need for supply lines that grow ever-longer and consume ever-greater amounts of fuel.
New Yorkers in general consume 77% less than most other Americans in terms of energy use. That's because New Yorkers, in an attitude-laden way, sort of live like an enormous extended family. To a certain extent, everything we need and everyone with whom we interact are just a few flights upstairs or a few feet out the back door, just like at the Poisler's house.
The extended family historically created small communities where children were cared for communally, land was used for the betterment of the group, resources were shared, and information was efficiently passed down as years went by. See that word, 'efficient?' Efficiency is really the secret behind green living and helping the planet heal from our excess. If we live more efficiently, we waste less, use less, and allow more to stay planted, growing, breathing, and clean.
So the 21st century solutions the Poisler's have used to save money, space, and keep their family unit together are really a harkening back to the 19th century lifestyles of our ancestors. And, while I feel no desire to go back to open sewers and wagon-travel, I recognize the value in some of the communal habits that are helping the Poisler's live well, and live green.
Holter writes about the Grandma Knows Best episode of Wa$ted!
More on Green Families and Communities
Why Building Community is the Greenest Thing You Can Do
Celebrate Father's Day with Steve Thomas
How to Go Green: In the Community
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