The Fountain of Youth

“By now, most people know we’re in danger. We’ve heard of the thinning ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, acid rain the destruction of the world’s forests, arable lands, and drinkable water….”

That is the first line of the preface to The Canadian Green Consumer Guide: How You Can Help, by the Pollution Probe Foundation (McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1989). Margaret Atwood wrote the preface, dated July 1989. 

I found the book a few months ago in a garage sale. It was horribly disorienting. Sure, the terminology and some of the focus is a bit outdated – we don’t really talk about the ozone layer or acid rain anymore, largely (I think) due to the perception, and some reality, that these issues have been satisfactorily resolved – but the substance could have been written just this minute. Atwood writes convincingly that one big issue is that

“…most people don’t know what to do. In the face of such an enormous global problem, they feel helpless. But although the problem is global, the solutions must be local. Unless we begin somewhere, we will never begin at all. An absence of small beginnings will spell the end.” 

I wish I could reproduce her preface in full. It’s unbelievably consistent with what you’d read in many an enviro-focused piece today, from talking about energy efficiency, to food waste, to the knowing supply chains so, for example, “you know you aren’t eating destroyed Amazonian rainforest with every hamburger bite”. And the book proposes practical and effective solutions – the same ones you hear of today. Heat pumps, solar panels, wind turbines, home retrofitting and insulating and energy efficient appliances, and low chemical household cleaners…And it was written 32 years ago!!! 3 “Decade[s] of Action” ago! 

I’ve been reeling for weeks over this in ways that I can’t fully explain. But some of that disorientation clarified in the post-COP26 conversation around Youth. One of the most hopeful narratives that we hear is about how Youth are driving a sense of urgency. How Youth are developing solutions, networks, protests… But reading this book I couldn’t help thinking that there must have been many such youth back in 1989. Someone who was 20 in 1989 would be 52 today. Atwood wrote:

“This is wartime. Right now we’re losing; but it’s a war we can still win, with some good luck, a lot of good will, and a great many intelligent choices.”

Presumably The Pollution Probe Foundation and many other organizations like it had youth followers in 1989. 3 decades later, I wonder how much is really different today, beyond the rhetoric and the media landscape. The internet changed everything, some people say. I start to fear it largely only changed our perceptions and the velocity of our horrible choices.