Happy Earth Day! I have to admit, however, that Earth Day gets my goat. Maybe because it seems to be just a feel-good marketing opportunity for so-called green products (bamboo kitchen utensils! nylon shopping bags! organic mascara!), most of which are horribly overpriced, many of which are snake oil, and in the end don’t make a real dent in the big picture. Hmmm, too cynical? Okay, let me explain…
Here’s my wish for future Earth Days: Green houses everyone can afford.
Instead of offering up oversized “green” minimansions that require jumbo mortgages, homebuilders of my dream Earth Day will put up affordable (let’s say under $200k; heck, let’s shoot for $150k), smaller houses with built-in green technology: solar and wind power, tankless hot water heaters, rainwater collection systems with cisterns, the whole bit. They’ll site houses to take full advantage of passive solar opportunities. AND they won’t yank out all of the existing trees in the process!
Make this stuff the norm, and make it affordable to families who make $50k a year (that was the median U.S. household income in 2007; in my county it was $35k in 2004, but unemployment is nearing 15%, so it’s probably lower today). That will make a huge difference to the planet—and our daily lives—don’t you think?
I’m not talking about including cool finishings like bamboo flooring or recycled-glass countertops, although those would be nice. Let’s start on the big systems and leave it to the homeowner to upgrade the cosmetic stuff if and when they can afford it. Just give people at all income levels the means to live cheaply and no longer so utterly dependent on the whims and backroom dealings of our governments and utilities and their ancient infrastructures.
Let us save our green while being green.
Oh, and I don’t want the government to subsidize this stuff either. That’s our money, and we should decide who gets it and when.
Or is that too much to ask? Anyway, Happy Earth Day!
