The journey begins

Welcome to my blog!

I've been on the road to greenness for quite a while now, but have taken many detours on the way to where I am today. You might say that my trip began on the first Earth Day — April 22, 1970, when I attended a teach-in at my suburban Boston high school. Subsequent actions included my first editorial (in the student underground newspaper), research papers on air pollution and a brief correspondence with the mayor of Boston, lobbying for a recycling program in town, urging everyone I knew to ride a bike or use public transportation more, and wearing the appropriate button calling for an end to nuclear power.

The concept of climate change was far in the future, the fish we ate was abundant and came from Gloucester or Cape Cod, DDT had been exposed in Silent Spring and would soon be banned, and the rivers were getting cleaner. Garlic and most of our produce still came from the USA (if you count California, a far distant place where Levis were made.) Steroids were not part of the food system, and antibiotics were for sick people, or animals, not a prophylactic so livestock could be raised in confinement. Cars were dirty, but most families had just one. People lived a short distance from where they worked or needed to go. I (and most everyone I knew) had not yet flown on a plane. The enemies of the planet were corporate America and the government which did not contain their greed. Boycotts and marches were the usual forms of protest, black ink on cheap paper the means of rallying the masses. Things looked a little grim, but hope was in the air.