Natural Perspectives:

While Vic was tending the garden at home, I spent the past glorious week in the presence of people who love plants in Raleigh, N.C. I attended the 61st annual symposium of the Garden Writers Assn., a whirlwind of garden tours — three to four a day — plus lectures and exhibits of new garden products.

Lowell Catlett, a futurist from University of New Mexico, delivered the keynote address on the new “Greening of America.” He contrasted the lives of relative luxury and high-resource consumption of many modern Americans to the lives of hardship and frugality of his parents during the Great Depression. He described his childhood on a ranch in Texas where his family struggled just to get by and put enough food on the table.

Although today, we’re in a recession that some call a depression, Catlett said that recessions are a natural part of the economy, and that, on average, Americans are vastly wealthier than they used to be. Today, 20% of Americans own two homes and 5% own three houses. Americans are prosperous, he said, and can afford luxuries their parents didn’t even dream of. Only 9.5% of our disposable income these days goes for food. We’ve gotten used to bigger houses, bigger yards and more luxuries. We have the necessities taken care of, and can afford to dream of a greener life style, not just a luxurious lifestyle. Catlett called this living in dream space.

Part of my trip included a visit with my niece and nephew, who live in Raleigh. My niece’s house is a whopping 3,700 square feet. My brother drove out from Indianapolis, and we spent some time reminiscing about our Grandma Wilson and her tiny 650-square-foot house. She had a garden in back and canned vegetables at the height of harvest season to tide her over the winter. It wasn’t a luxury; it was a necessity.

Grandma’s heat was a coal stove in the dining room, with no ducts to take the heat to other rooms. I can remember huddling around that little stove in those frigid Hoosier winters, feeding in lumps of coal. The un-insulated house was cold and drafty by the windows. During miserably hot and humid summers in Indiana, we got by with electric fans. No air conditioning back then.

Today, people have climate-controlled houses that are many times larger than my grandmother’s house. It takes a lot of energy to heat and cool such houses, even with modern insulation. It also takes more resources to furnish and decorate bigger houses.

Catlett also talked about animals. During the depression and for thousands of years before that, animals were for food or work. Now they’re pets.

There are more horses now — more than 9 million in the U.S. — than when they were the main means of personal transportation. But horses have been reclassified from farm animals to companion animals.

Catlett pointed out that horses used to pull us down the road. Now we pull them down the road, burning fossil fuel in the process.

While Catlett’s talk was interesting and thought-provoking, I thought he overlooked the hardships that so many people are enduring these days.

We may not be in the Great Depression, but many people have lost their jobs and even their homes.

Not everyone is living in dream space.

Catlett’s point was that the average American is relatively well off and can afford to live a greener life. Most of us can choose to buy locally grown organic food, even if it does cost a little more.

Many people can afford hybrid cars, solar panels on their roof and other components of a green lifestyle.

We hope that people will use their disposable incomes to make their lives greener and friendlier to the environment, not just accumulate things.

The population of the U.S. is predicted to be 310 million next year. It’s going to take a lot of houses, cars, furniture, clothing, electronics, games, toys and decor for that many of us. Both the wealthiest Americans and the poorest will need new ways of living in the future.

We’ll need to fashion lives that provide for peoples’ needs while at the same time reducing the consumption of natural resources. If we don’t, we’ll all sooner or later be impoverished once again. Our planet and its resources are finite.

While we may live in dream space relative to our parents and grandparents, Vic and I are still going to encourage everyone to live the green dream instead of the mass consumption dream. Get by with less. Conserve resources. Think about the environmental consequences of actions and purchases. Our dream is a sustainable world.

As I was getting ready to fly home, Vic informed me by phone that the Department of Fish and Game will begin construction this week on the new pedestrian bridge at Bolsa Chica. The new bridge will cross the channel immediately south of Warner Avenue, making for a much safer crossing between the inland and coastal sides of the ecological reserve.

This long-awaited project was strongly supported by all of the Bolsa Chica citizens groups, all of which lobbied in its favor and helped raise funds to pay for it. Construction is expected to take about six weeks, because the bridge itself will be delivered to the site as a single-piece structure.

Once concrete footings and ramps have been constructed, installation of the bridge will take only a few days. We’re looking forward to the grand opening!

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at LMurrayPhD@gmail.com.