Chris Belland's - "Going Green"
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Realities of Our World have Changed -- Can We?

By Chris Belland

Last week, an anonymous contributor to the Citizen's Voice column in The Key West Citizen called me a hypocrite for saying we, as a people, should try to buy locally instead of from non-regulated labor of third-world countries where the pay scale is barely subsistence wages. I was called a hypocrite because our company, Historic Tours of America, sells things made in China in our company's stores.

Of course we do! Not only do I admit it but I have mentioned before on several occasions that I am not without guilt or blame in the current state of our environment. It is the world we have let ourselves become. I am, if not a willing participant, a participant of no small significance.

I even drive a gas-guzzling car. I could have sold it as a "clunker" except for the fact that it is 10 years old and runs fine, which was my main beef about that whole program in the first place.

The notion that anybody would bother to call me a hypocrite is, at least to me, ridiculous. I am a hypocrite. As a matter of fact, there is not one person reading this article who espouses a shred of concern for the environment that is not either a small hypocrite or a large one. Maybe I'm larger than others, I don't know. Is the matter of degree really relevant?

In putting myself out there for public scrutiny in a column of opinions and research to make us all think, I have chosen to sign my name to these thoughts and at least be honest about it.

My company does sell things made in China. We also sell bottled water in plastic bottles (recyclable). We even use plastic bags! In some cases we use Styrofoam. It's wrong. I know it and I have said so. The process employs people both here and where the goods are made. Is that good or bad? Chinese who used to starve now long to have televisions and cars. I'm not smart enough to judge whether this is all right or all wrong. Again, it is the world in which we live and I, and we, must change it when and where we can.

In this vein, we have removed all bottled water from our office, started a recycling program, are proud to have used propane in our sightseeing vehicles in most of our operations since 1980, and have won several environmental awards and commendations nationwide. But I, more than most who might be reading this, realize how far short we are from where we should be. We have a long, long way to go before I could ever say that I am proud of everything we do, at least in the environmental area.

I am not writing this to get sympathy or appreciation. I deserve neither. At the same time I have made it my business to try and bring to the attention of anyone who wants to know, and that includes me, what we are doing to despoil the environment and how, by taking advantage of production by the poorest people on earth, we not only affect the environment but are also perpetuating a "more is better" philosophy. We generally live the fat, uninvolved, disinterested lives of citizens in a rich country.

I have researched, written, attended more cleanups than I care to remember and gone out to carry this message to as many schools and civic groups as have invited me. But still I am definitely a hypocrite in that I say one thing and, in many cases, do another. Why?

Why would any rational person buy and use products that foul the very environment in which he lives if there is an alternative that we would all pay a little extra for? Does anybody think that anyone with a shred of conscience would live off the pain and suffering of others, without guilt, if they knew better or had an alternative? No, I don't believe so, but we all do.

Yes, my stores do carry things made in China, but so does Publix, Home Depot, Sears, Fast Buck Freddie's, Fausto's and probably every other store on this island. It doesn't make it any more right but we all buy the same stuff, more or less.

The problem is that the change of how and what we buy has come over us slowly, assiduously and insidiously. It has happened all around us so surreptitiously and quietly that nobody even noticed. And here we are, guilty as charged. If you don't think so, try to live one month, just 30 days, without using or buying Chinese home products or food from another country. I double-dog dare ya!

We can change but it will not be easy. I triple-dog dare ya!

The petro-chemical industry and Madison Avenue convinced us to buy the by-products of gasoline production by bringing the miracle and travesty of plastic into our lives. We demanded and got cheaper goods by closing down many of our factories and exporting the productive capacity of our people to countries without the health, welfare and environmental protections or requirements of U.S. factories.

The Americans who produced our radios, televisions, bicycles, toys and appliances are no more. We don't even fix them anymore. We just send back the e-waste and scrap metal to the third-world countries where we got our stuff and buy new stuff. Because our automobiles "needed" to be bigger, faster and have more gadgets, we were overtaken by the automobile industries of Japan and now Korea before we even knew it.

Our citrus, garlic, onion and fruit production has given way to housing developments and Wal-Marts in favor of food being imported from Central and South America and China. As Pogo so eloquently put it, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

I have put myself "out there" to bring this to the attention of others as I educated myself. While I cannot say whether global warming is totally the fault of how we live, I can say with certainty that how we live is unsustainable. We cannot support forever the vastly increased demand for consumption and a growing population base, both here and abroad, against the ever-increasing decline in resources.

If any part of this message has made any impact on anyone besides myself, then I will consider the effort to have been worth it. For myself, I am far from perfect but I will continue to try to get better with how I live and how I work. It will not be easy and it will not be something that happens overnight but that is my pledge to myself.

It is my daily challenge and I am trying.

What will you do?