Think Globally, Act Locally

It’s time to think globally and act locally. There’s something to be said for bumper sticker solutions to important national problems.

I live in a pleasant town in the Bos-Wash corridor and Saturday I was taking a walk through the hood and the hills were alive with the sounds of gas powered leaf blowers. And I thought to myself, is this the reason thousands of brave Americans have sacrificed their lives in the Persian Gulf. To save the world for gas powered leaf blowers? Or, so people can leave their SUVs idling while they walk into the local 7-Eleven to grab a coffee? I hope not.

My brother uses an old fashioned hand mower to cut the grass on his lawn and his neighbors call him Fred Flintstone. And in the spirit of transparency, I use a gas powered mower to cut my grass. But I only need to cut my grass once a year because I never water my lawn and the grass never grows high enough to become a nuisance. At least to me. I can’t speak for my neighbors. (Note to my neighbors. If you have any problems with my lawn or leaves, please use the comment section attached to the TJS blog to complain.)

Why do we need to blow away all the leaves and cut the lawn so it looks like a golf course? To paraphrase the great American poet, Walt Whitman, leaf our grass alone. Dead leaves fertilize the lawn and make the grass greener. My next door neighbor bless his heart comes home from work every evening in the summer and cuts his lawn with a gas powered mower to within an inch of its life. Why?

While the Earth heats up and the global warming clock ticks down, Congress is doing nothing but blowing hot air. Meanwhile at the local level, I pledge to do my part and borrow my brother’s hand mower next year for the annual lawn cutting. I guess that will make me, Barney Rubble.

• Read more about energy policy and climate change.
• See which industries give the most to members of Congress.
  
• See a roundup of the month's best political cartoons.

Reader Comments Read all comments (5)

Add Your Thoughts

Comment Name State Select One AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY International Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Incorrect please try again

Enter the words above: Enter the numbers you hear:

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.