It Is Easy Being Green
Monday, March 10th, 2008by Steve Johnson (Jason Street)
I read a statistic analogy recently that created a dramatic image:
Enough office waste paper is thrown away each year to build a 12-foot wall between Los Angeles and New York City. Naturally, I envisioned our little corner of the US map, and wondered how our neighborhood fit into that picture. While we wait for spring to turn the natural world green, what’s happening in our own community? Are we more or less “green” than our neighbors, and how do we compare to other cities and towns in the rest of the world? I wonder how efficient or wasteful we are as a society, and how much we give and take from the planet. I consider Arlington to be progressive, and we’re in good company. One recent poll rated Boston the third greenest city in America, largely because of the efforts to promote bicycle travel, and the restoration of green space over the Big Dig. Cambridge, far ahead in bike travel, was ranked number six, and San Francisco number one. But what about the rest of us who can’t seem to avoid using cars?