Thanking Environmentalism's “Insiders”
In order to make the point I wish to communicate in this post, I need to begin with a short tale from my college days. I’ve made liberal use of photography (via the links below) to help get the story across.
Within the first minutes of my arrival at Trinity College in September of 1973, I became a friend of Robert C. Buffum, Jr., whose father was the fourth-generation owner/manager of the Weekapaug Inn. As implied by the term “fourth-generation,” the inn was historic; it had opened its doors in 1899, and occupied a significant chunk of ground on the southern shore of Rhode Island. There were no televisions or night clubs (or even a bartender), but there was plenty of sailing, tennis, bicycling, bridge, a (discreet/BYOB) cocktail hour, and food so fresh and well-prepared it put the inn in a class by itself; in fact, one had the sense that without the food, and without the deep and sincere warmth of the Buffums themselves, this place might have been fairly unremarkable—just another summer enclave for old money and its preppy offspring.
The inn had a dozen-or-so staff, but the Buffum family itself had its own considerable duties and responsibilities, mostly focused on ensuring that each guest, many of whose families had been coming there since the turn of the century, felt a renewed bond of welcoming friendship and belonging.
Of course, most of these guests looked, spoke and acted as though they were friends of Jay Gatsby’s on the opposite side of the Sound, but that didn’t mean they were impossible to warm up to. I learned that from personal experience the summer after freshman year when I was invited to spend a few days with the family, meeting and greeting guests, trying to muster the same level of wholesome good manners and true affinity for these people as the Buffums themselves had.
Then something happened, perhaps quite subtle, that demonstrated that I was indeed functioning as part of the inn itself. Mr. Buffum leaned over to me when we sat down to dinner the first night and told me in a low voice, “Craig, you may have anything on the menu you wish except for the striped bass. We’re running a bit low, and it goes without saying that they come first.” His voice trailed off as he cast a smiling gaze across the couple hundred guests, jacket-and-tie gentlemen and their handsome wives, seated around the room.
I was delighted. I wasn’t a guest; I was an insider. I felt so important to be occupying a position in which I was actually doing something–even if that something was as minuscule as not ordering a certain dish.
As we close 2014 here at 2GreenEnergy, I share that sense of being an “insider” with all of you—especially our interns, frequent commenters, clients, and guest bloggers—and with anyone who’s working from the inside to bring about the aims of a better and cleaner planet. Keep in mind that this group of “insiders” is hardly small; it’s large and growing every day; we’re one of over 200,000 groups worldwide whose mission is social and environmental justice. That’s a lot of horsepower.
I’ll take the feeling of being a part of all this over a plate of striped bass any day, and I bet you feel the same.
A nice sentiment .We all (us insiders ) know that we are on the cusp of an energy revolution and we all hope to participate in it’s accomplishment. Weather it be preaching to our friends the gospel of environmental respect or just riding a bike to work or planting drought resistant native plants .We all can be proud of our lifestyle that demonstrates to others our commitment to the planet and the respect for the people that will follow us .So everyone keep after those politicians ,keep investing in a clean future and share this blog with others so we can all eat the striped bass someday
Hi Craig,
I feel like a droplet in the ocean. Speaking of water, I´d like to quote a citation from an exotic actor in the 1970´s…
“Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend”.
Reality does not exist by itself.
All the best for 2015,
Vicente Fachina
As an “insider” one of our obligations, I suppose, is to test run newly developed products. We bought a THINK! CITY car as the Indiana assembly plant was liquidating but with the assurance that parts would be available for years. The car has handled great and except for a small glitch performed everything as expected till recently it began to refuse to accept a full charge or sometimes any charge at all. Talking to the former factory tech I learned that this is probably the CPU in the charge regulator and that they are no longer made or stocked. Such is the plight of the early adopters sometimes.
Thanks for bringing us the news and cheering us on!
Aloha!
Rico
Well, you certainly have a good temperament given the circumstances. Please see: http://2greenenergy.com/2014/12/28/fits-starts-electric-transportation/
Craig, Here’s wishing you and yours, an even greater year ahead, and also to all your readers and “actioners”. Hope to catch up in 2015.
May we all have a happy, healthy, safe and successful 2015 and beyond.
Regards,Ken
Thank you Craig and all of “insiders/implementors” for sharing environmental articles that will help clean our environment and save mother earth. The shift from CE to EV is happening and hope the next generations will benefit from this advocacy. Wishing you and
our readers a better, cleaner and safe 2015. HAPPY HOLiDAYS and God bless everyone
……. VerR
Years ago, my cousin had a friend who had a “DKW” – a car, 3-cyl, tiny, with 2-pole accelerator (on/off), and when not accelerating, coasted. It was German (I think the initials stood (in part) for “Deutsches K??? Werke” (apologies if it’s spelled wrong)). It may have been a 2-cycle. (and if may have be chain drive…)
Ever since I saw it, I’ve thought that we need something like that. Not all of us, perhaps, but if someone could build something that was electric instead of gas, with a top speed of 50mph and a range of 50 miles (for example), I could drive it to work, charge it with solar panels during the day, and drive home.
With the price of PV these days, I could buy a panel and park so it charged the battery during the day. Or my employer might let me put a couple of panels on the roof so that several of us could charge.
A tiny basic vehicle – enough lights and brakes to make it safe, big enough to hold two uncomfortably – just “transportation”.
Imagine if my effective cost to commute were almost Zero. My existing gas powered vehicle could be parked until more range was needed, especially if the basic vehicle price were less than $10k. I’d be willing to bet that within a few years, most of the cars in the lot would be the same. (I’d suggest licensing the name “Dinky car”.)
The EV1 was interesting, but it was designed to be “sexy” and had a price tag that reflected that.
OK, the DinkyCar would need a heater (it’s already snowing here) etc., but I think it might catch on as a “green power, saves “green”” anti-status, silly but effective commuter vehicle.
I don’t know if anyone knows of something like this but I would buy it in an instant! cheap to buy, cheap to run – the ego-free DinkyMobile!
Don’t I wish… So get on it, all you smart, practical people out there. I want my 2015 DinkyDrive before the year is out.
Roger Priddle
Tiny, ON, CA.