Not Easy Being Green
Posted: Sun 9 April, 2006 Filed under: Green, Thoughts 4 Comments »At the moment BBC is showing a programme (no link, because I can’t find one, although there’s a small piece about the series here) called “It’s Not Easy Being Green”. No, it’s not about the Muppets, but instead about a family, the Strawbridges, who have moved to Cornwall and are working to live in an ecologically sound manner.
It’s a strange programme in a number of ways, because while it contains some good ideas and good advice, it also helps to do more damage to the Green and Ecological lifestyles than it should, because frankly Mr and Mrs Strawbridge (as opposed to the children) spend half the time looking like nutters.
In the most recent episode, for instance, they managed to merge some excellent ideas about glass recycling and heatsinks, solar-heated showers etc., with a visit to the Big Green Gathering, or whatever it was called, which had an awful lot of hippies in a field, and some of the most manky “recycled” tat in existence.
Now, I don’t mind hippies per se, nor do I overly object to the Big Green Gathering and its like. I do, however, have a problem with the way that hippie-type people seem to always become the enthusiastic/lunatic fringe for things to do with Green and Ecological living, and thus become the poster-children for all this kind of thing.
I don’t know, this entire mental process hasn’t yet been fully thought-out by me, but if we are to start living in a way that encourages things like recycling, sustainable power, self-sufficiency and so on, perhaps the first step on the way to mainstream acceptance of these concepts is to have some sane non-hippies taking in the lifestyle, and becoming a better advert than the current crop of users?
There is some contention as to whether I am a hippy or not. I don’t look it. I don’t act it. Yet, because I don’t own a car — and haven’t since I was 16 — some folks think I don’t also eschew deodorant. I’m not particularly green, but I do what I can … and not owning a car has been my particular contribution … peace out.
x — hippy girl. (kidding).
whoops … typo … that i DO eschew
It’s very watchable isn’t it? I want a water-wheel.
To be fair to dear old Dick, he did make a point of the fact that he takes the piss out out of his hippy missus’ quirks and in the previous episode he visited some bloke in Peckham who didn’t typify your average sandal-wearing, tie-dyed, woolly-head at all. Well, not until he started speaking anyway.
There’s plenty of stuff on telly about ‘eco-living’ that doesn’t rely on the hippy-hippy stereotype to make its point and the Strawbridges are going quite far-out (pun intended) on their particular limb.
Do I look like a hippy Lyle? I’m an eco freak, growing me own veggies and salad leaves oh and herbs etc in pots in me back yard, recycling everything, minimising water and energy use, but I couldn’t do without my car, damn!