The Green Miles

It’s Thanksgiving in the US, and today many millions of families there are sitting down with each other, enjoying a meal together to contemplate their gratitude. For Jon and me, we’re nearing the end of our journey, here on the Green Miles, and while we’re not making a turkey dinner, I did want to take this final post, and - in a sense - give thanks.

As I mentioned in the last post, after 10 months of traveling, we’re finally in Sydney, slowly settling in.  My bags are unpacked in a rented flat, I’m learning my way around North Sydney’s hilly shores, and I’m contemplating new horizons, like a job, and what to make for dinner.

It’s certainly a different lifestyle, but I’m joyful to embrace it, and explore all the new experiences for me, here.

As for what has happened during our travels, well, there’s a lot to tell.  Too much.  So, for now, I’d like to share the three things that have impacted me most. 

Modesty:  my mother always jokes that I have “champagne taste on a beer budget.”  In doing research for this blog, I found this most revealing about myself, especially as most “green” aspects of our society, today, pander for thicker wallets.  Of course I’d like to visit Botswana’s renowned Savute Under Canvas, but frankly, I can’t afford it, and neither can most people. 

Sadly, the idea that green living is only for the fiscally superior is a prevalent one – and one perpetuated by all the new companies out there flogging products and services. What I’ve learned, from the past year, is that it doesn’t have to be like that. 

I don’t need the best fully solar powered luxury accommodation; I need somewhere small, local, and safe.  I don’t need the latest energy-saving gadget or product; I just need to take care and reuse what I have.   Modesty, contrary to what most green websites and startups are flogging, is at the true helm of this movement:  living within our financial and environmental means, and appreciating what we already have. 

I still have, as my mother says, “champagne taste”, and I probably always will, but I’ve learned to wait out my desires, to research each purchase, and to buy carefully.  Most of the time, although it pains me to admit, I don’t need it.  I can survive without it.  But when I do decide to purchase something, my prudent choice means the things I have will last me longer, and provide me with longer-lasting joy.

Stability:  the hard truth is that it’s very difficult to travel environmentally minded.  Most research I’ve done has pointed to strict-planning and staying away from plane or automobile travel, as the answers to green travel.  For most of us who’d enjoy getting outside the M25, or who have ever tried to plan their way using a Peruvian bus schedule, however, this just isn’t practical.

Travel, itself, is a celebration of chaos.  Not knowing the language, the city, the culture – this is the excitement, and the reason we travel.  A walk in the Lake District is nice, yes, but if we all thought like that we wouldn’t know much about the world.

For me, the solution is in stability.  The experiences we found most rewarding were those that introduced a sense of constancy into our muddled traveling lives.  Spending a month with a family in Buenos Aires, for example, visiting friends in Salvador, or even parking ourselves on the beach for a week at a locally-run resort, in Samoa  - all these things (instead of bus-hopping, swapping hostel rooms and trying to intake as much sightseeing as possible) allowed us to explore the places on a deeper level.

Call it the lazier version of travel (the one where a conversation is better than a brochure) but in the future I know our best trips will be those where, although we might travel far to get there, once we are, we’ll park ourselves and soak it well and truly up.

Solutions:  To me, this fits snugly alongside my comments on modesty, and here’s why: the best solutions I’ve witnessed for green living and travel have come from the simplest idea.  As I said before, most of today’s efforts to be environmentally minded are unfortunately aimed at the wealthy first world, where we can afford to chuck out our gas-guzzling car and buy a Prius.  Most products and services look regrettably past most of the developing world, and sadly, often those with all the resources we’re trying to protect, who can’t afford to opt into the movement. 

Yet, it is in these communities where some of the cleverest solutions are being hatched. 

One example, of which I am continually reminded, is a resourceful entrepreneur Jon saw a few times on Plaza Dorego, in Buenos Aires.  Once or twice a week, a man would bring his bike to the centre of the plaza, tip it over, and reveal a cleverly rigged knife sharpener.  Restaurants employees would then march out, carrying stacks of knives, and the Knife Man would peddle the bike until each knife was razor-sharp and gleaming.  It probably saved the restaurants a bunch of money on a sharpening machine, and it certainly was a profitable venture for the Knife Man.

I’m not saying that the Knife Man is going to save the world.  Or maybe I am.

Either way, here’s my hunch:  the next ten years will see the green bubble burst, and out of the ashes you’ll see the greenest shoots spring up from people that green commerce, much like regular commerce, actually, is currently ignoring.  The poor, the under-educated – many of these people have much to teach us about being careful with resources both fiscal and environmental. 

For all these things, I’m grateful.

We’re on the job hunt, here in Sydney.

Fresh from our bout-round-the-world, we’ve secured working holiday visas, slapped down a large sum of money on a month’s rent, and are zipping round our respective CVs like they are Viagra spam into overflowing junk-mail boxes.

One thing is certain, and everyone we know tut-tuts while agreeing (especially my mother):  it’s the wrong time to be looking for a job.

Markets are sinking, people are getting sacked left and right, Christmas bills are creeping up from behind, and everything that was right with the past 5 years seems to be constricting into a fearful, sweaty corner. It’s a tale of woe, really. 

One thing that has been puzzling me, as I tout my experience and smile, teeth-gritted, into the pile of cover letters I’m farming out, is the issue of green jobs.

Just as we see companies like CitiGroup axing 52,000 jobs, we see Obama’s “Green Jobs” plan being hailed as America’s next frontier for the US economy.  Obama has promised to transform many of America’s blue-collar manufacturing jobs (like those in the auto industry), into those creating green technology and commerce. 

Here in Sydney, it seems the last few weeks have ushered forth a large-scale squeeze on the job front.  For me, as a journalist and photographer, jobs are simply evaporating.  Roles that have been advertised in the newspaper and online are “no longer going forward”, and positions I could have easily nabbed back in London are “over-inundated with responses.”  As Australia’s biggest media company, Fairfax, slashes hundreds of jobs, it’s obvious why.

For Jon, a commercial planner and an always-required resource in the financial world, things are sticky, too.  His hard-working team of executive recruiters have explained that jobs at companies who would have, in previous months, offered to sponsor a permanent visa, are no longer hiring overseas workers, while contract terms for consultants like Jon are getting smaller and smaller.

So, it’s beyond slightly amusing to find 468 “environmental”-related jobs being advertised on Australian job site My Career for the past month.  Everything from Environmental Managers, to Consultants, to Scientists are being sought, for permanent, contract, full-time, part time, executive and labourer roles.

“Journalist” roles, same search options:  12 jobs.
 
On the not-for-profit Environmental Jobs Network, about 80 jobs are currently advertised, along with a number of educational websites and networks that environmental job hunters can peruse.

Teresa Day, the ECO Co-ordinator for the EJN, says that while it’s difficult to know the broader effects of the recession on the job market, it’s currently remaining steady.

“We are receiving the same amount of job adverts this month as we have for the last 6,” she said, “It has grown over the last 2 years though.”

She considers new environmental legislation to be a big boost in the job sector, as well as the idea that environmental considerations make companies more economically efficient.

“Companies will still need to develop policies and make changes to fit in with new legislation, regardless of the economic situation [and] position,” she said, “In addition to this, the implementation of an environmental management plan can help companies save resources, and therefore money, so perhaps companies will be encouraged to look at environmental practices due to the economic situation.”

Ms. Day is positive about the future of the environmental sector during these tough times.

“I feel that it may be one of the sectors that is able to ride out an economic downturn a little easier. With the increasing commitment from governments around the world to tackle climate change their needs to be a significant shift in both the way an economy operates and the types of job opportunities that are created.”

There’s still hope, and I’m sure something’s coming down the pipeline as we speak.  It also makes me hopeful that many companies, despite slimming down manpower and assets, are holding on to environmental jobs and their related experts.

As for me, in another life, I should have been a geotechnical engineer or environmental planner.  At least this blog gives me some green cred, hey?

Stay Tuned:  Comments from those in the environmental-sector, on the tumbling economy, and staying afloat.

I recently read two of food journalist Michael Pollan’s books, Omnivore’s Dilemma & In Defense of Food, and was deeply affected, not only by the author’s thorough explanation of the western world’s atrocious industrialized food system, but by the shocking contrast concept of a small, quiet movement of biodymanic food producers known as “grass farmers”.

Rather a philosophy than a profession, Grass Farming is based on the idea that – and flashback to that awesome Planet Earth episode, here – everything in the food chain depends on that miracle plant, grass, and that farming anything requires nurturing and managing the relationship between grass, animal, and human.

In Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan turns up at the Virginian-based Grass Farm, called Polyface Farm, of Joel Salatin, who guides him through the clever intricacies of his grass farm.  First, he’d grow the grass.  Not one species, but hundreds of different kinds – wild and planted – whose growth, and worm-count, he’d meticulously monitor.  Next, when grown to a very specific point, in a very specific area (cordoned over by a portable electric fence), Salatin would bring in his cows to nibble for the day.  After the cows had their go (in many senses of the word), Salatin’s plump little chickens would enter, pecking about for all the chubby insects that came calling for the cow manure.  The following day, the portable fence would move to a different selection of perfectly ready grass, to avoid overgrazing, and the cycle would continue.

Salatin’s farm included pigs and many different kinds of fruits and vegetables, as well, which he circulates and maneuvers in such a way that compliments beast, plant, and in turn man.  

Daniel Salatin, Joel’s son, explains that they way they do things intends to mimic nature.

“We’re just following nature and mimicking what is being done through wild turkey flocks, through buffalo on the plains as they move to fresh grass following the rains, and we’re just taking that and using it on a commercial scale in a farming-type setting.” 

The Salatin’s also say the farm is also a socio-economic system, and an environmental model.

“We’re right here, local.  Any help that we hire is right here, local.  We don’t bring in labor that puts strains on our school systems and health systems. We’re able to pay ourselves full wages.  It keeps the land open and green and clean and not put into a housing development because we don’t make any profit, “Daniel explains, on the website, “We look at it through those eyes, and how can we best complete these ideals, to raise this animal and create a great product that someone can enjoy on their dinner table.”

In fact, the Salatins believe this way of farming is not just about dinner, but the foundation for a healthy society.

“Plants and animals should be provided a habitat that allows them to express their physiological distinctiveness,” Joel explains on the website, “Respecting and honoring the pigness of the pig is a foundation for societal health.”

Clearly I’ve simplified the complexity with which the whole programme operates, here, but the idea that one singular farm could produces such a beautiful consortium of animals and foliage – and according to Pollan, very happy & healthy looking ones, at that – makes me giddy with sustainability. 

Plus, according to Pollan, Joel ran a healthy business, as well, in which his chickens were sell-outs, and his eggs (due to their high beta-carotene content – that lovely orange colour) were the talk of many of DC’s best chefs.

Why am I going on about grass farming, you’re beginning to wonder? 

Well. 

The practice began in the sheep-clogged hills of New Zealand, and as Jon and I spent the past two weeks roaming around in a campervan, I got to wind through a great number of farms where cattle were chomping happily on grass, turkeys were waddling lazily next to a idyllic stream, and bright red ripening strawberries popped out from sheaths of emerald foliage. I wondered, in fact, if something that Pollan painted as so idyllic, was actually working for farmers and, more importantly, for the environment?

Ooooh-man, though, is New Zealand a hotbed of grass.  Rolling, breezy tundra, sweeping over hills and into wide valleys:  it’s all green-green-green everywhere, even in the wet, windy beginning of spring.  It’s no surprise farmers rely on those perky green shoots (rather than grain) to feed livestock, especially since it remains such a bountiful and free commodity for much of the year. 

Beyond, of course, the grass, itself, at the heart of this movement, though, are two things:  New Zealand farming policies, and Allan Nation.

The former is a controversial government policy that, in 1984, axed agricultural subsidies (which most western industrial nations, including the UK, rely on heavily) and left farmers to fend for themselves.  The result left New Zealand’s farming industry devastated and weak – but not for long.  Farmers eventually began farming more efficiently, and in many cases, more sustainably, including using grass to feed their cattle, sheep and poultry, instead of formerly cheap (and highly subsidized) grain.  Today, farming in New Zealand is big business, and since the end of the subsidies, according to government statistics, output has quintupled.  New Zealand dairy farmers are some of the most productive in the world, and the statistic is rising with the formalization of organic certifications and “Big Organic”.  Of course, most farms here are small family operations, providing local produce, meat, and cheese, (not to mention huge swaths of grassland and trees that suck in carbon) which ticks a big box for the environment, as well.

As for the latter, the little-known man with a passion for pasture is now a big international name, thanks to his spunky editorial work in a trade newsletter called The Stockman Grass Farmer (one of Salatin's favourite reads).  Nation visited New Zealand grass farmers in the mid-eighties, just as they were grappling with not having subsidies, and became entranced with the idea of pasturing animals.  He spread the fervor to his newsletter colleagues, one of whom coined the term that sits at the centre of Nation’s ideology: “Management Intensive Grazing.”  It’s basically a bureaucratic name for very careful rotational grazing, with the emphasis on the farmer’s knowledge and organization of his grass (and therefore animals and vegetables).

Nation’s work has inspired small farmers like the Salatins to move into the tedious but rewarding field of grass farming, and in the small Northland towns we wound through, while big supermarket chains are taking over chunks of real estate, the local butchers and bakers are still making a good trade, and the numerous working farms surrounding the towns are proof that grass farming is still good business.

Of course, issues involving grass farming are obviously more complicated than all that lovely rolling emerald stuff makes them seem. It’s well known that cattle and sheep are heavy carbon producers (though Pollan says it doesn’t happen as much with grass-fed animals, as they are eating their naturally instinctive food, rather than being force-fed grains), and that manure and fertilizer run-off are detrimental water pollutants.  Yet, Pollan argues that because of the symbiotic relationships that Grass Farming encourages, farmers are well-aware that one action of neglect - one poor decision to let your cows overgraze a field and then cause erosion, runoff and unusable land - could compromise the entire operation. 

Therefore, he says, Grass Farmers do well in holding themselves accountable - something that many US and European industrial farms have little incentive to do.

Daniel Salatin sums it up well: “We try to take what God has given the animal, natural ability, and we say, how can we use that to help another animal, or to help give a better product:  a healthier animal, and a better tasting product for our customers and us to enjoy. - and yet leaving our environment and our bank account in a better state for the next generation.”

In the run up to the US Presidential election, Guest Blogger, Husband, & Frequent American Visitor Jonathan Tidd discusses the benefits & pitfalls to America's green culture.


My 90-day tourist visa for the USA is up. We have departed the States for the South Pacific islands - a chance to sit on a beach and reflect on our 9-state tour. For the past 3 months, I've been viewing our state-hopping trip through a green lens: wondering what it’s going to take for Uncle Sam to fully commit to sustaining Planet Earth.

Does the US matter?
My first question, (being a non-American and avid reader of UK and international media) is: does the United States even matter?

With GWB ruling for the past 8 years, the US government (and, some of us foreigners say, the rest of America) has passed on numerous opportunities to jump on board the green bandwagon, not least by signing the Kyoto Treaty. The rest of the world has ploughed ahead regardless, setting various targets to limit & reduce our environmental impact, using (or continuing to use) public transport, and generally trying to be conscious of our footprints.But here’s the hard truth: the United States is the fourth largest piece of real estate in the world, occupying 6% of the world's land surface (it’s 40 times bigger than the UK). They are the 3rd biggest country by population - 5% of the world is American – (5 times as many as us English/Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish). They are the richest country, accounting for 25% of the world's economy (consumption or production), although 2nd if you count the EU. And they also burn 25% of the world's oil, more than double per person than us in the UK. So the world being green without including the United States is like trying to drive a car with a flat tyre.  You might slog along for a while, but you’re never going to get anywhere.

Like it or not, the US does matter, especially when it comes to keeping the planet livable for future generations. With that in mind, it should be good news that there are many ways that many Americans are trying to make life greener on their side of the fence.

The White House
Sure, they would probably have been a bit greener already had they elected Gore 8 years ago, instead of oilman W. But, finger’s crossed, they are about to elect Barack Obama as president, someone who clearly cares more about the rest of the world, and the planet itself, than the "I can see Russia from my house” McCain/Palin tag team. Obama might even put back up the solar panels on the roof of the White House that Carter had put up in the 70s  - only to be taken down by Reagan. By electing Obama, Americans will be removing the direct line to the White House for oilmen, contractors and their affiliated economic hit men, making it, if nothing else, at least a bit harder for them to have their way and continue destroying the planet so easily.

But, beyond that, Americans rely far less on their government and bureaucrats to impact their lives than we do across the pond. In fact, this ideology alone counts for a significant amount of voters who vote Republican in the first place: they have this very misplaced faith (based on evidence to the contrary) that a Republican President will get politicians out of their way so that they can get on with improving their own lives.

What makes America great? And will that help make them green?
One topic that came up far too frequently (although perhaps election fever increased it a notch this year) is what makes America great? People singing patriotic tunes say it’s the best country in the world, and both  Obama and McCain have waxed poetic about it during the election. And however much the flag-wearing, country-lovin’ mumbo jumbo might wind you up, it certainly raises an interesting point, because perhaps the same things that make America great, may also make them green.

The Bible Belt
Many say moral leadership is what made America great. The fervently religious have been flocking to America for hundreds of years, and new ones are being raised up today. Whether Evangelical Christian, Mormon, Muslim or Hindu, the thick vein of moral righteousness runs deep, and it feels obvious, at least to me, that more religious leaders should get on the green bandwagon.  In small town, middle America, Washington seems a long way away, and people would much rather turn to their local preacher. I’m sure we could dig up a few biblical quotes about the environment for a good sermon, right?

Tough Muscle
Added to their moral obligation, their military strength is apparently key. If you ignore that China has a bigger army, and that Vietnam, Afghanistan & Iraq are merely cup upsets that are anomalies - not the rule - America has historically been seen as that soldier-giving-sweets-to-the-children type of military, where they’re fighting against evil and for the cause of good.  Agree with this or not, the truth is still that America will always be a military presence in the world; they will always pour millions of dollars into their armed forces, so we might as well accept it.  What is hopeful, is that if the US government invests in alternative energy and doesn’t need oil from elsewhere, they’ll probably stop fighting as many wars.  And then perhaps the force can be used for greener purposes, like the armed enforcement of recycling, or military patrols of compost heaps.

Biggest Brains
Another explanation of America’s greatness is intelligence. I must admit here, that I have met many Americans who are smarter than me. Shame their current president isn't one of them (I'm going on IQ test results here, not just my own humble opinion!). True, American universities do fill many of the top rankings, but they also contain many of the best foreign professors, and foreign students. According to numerous surveys and publications, it is the educated and intelligent Americans who have already accepted the need for them to live and work more sustainably. Now they just need to convince the Wal-Mart shopping, Big Mac eating, TV-drone, um, less intelligent ones.

Innovation Nation
"My friends, you are the most innovative, hard working workers in the world."

John McCain isn't the only one to think that America is a place of innovation. Debatable I know, and I can hear many of you proud English, Welsh, Scots & Irish reminding me the iPod, the Internet, the telephone, the electric light bulb, etc, were ours, and the Germans invented the motorcar. True, but America has still invented and more importantly commercialized many things, and put the first man on the moon. In fact this might be the most promising avenue to inspire the remaining non-green Americans. Authors Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks have written an evocative book, called Apollo’s Fire, which I have noticed both Barack Obama and John McCain referenced in recent months. It combines America’s love of innovation with the next possible area of greatness:

Uniting for a Cause
Back in 1961, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech proclaiming America will be the first to put a man on the moon, and by the end of the decade. Clearly with hindsight we know it happened, but at the time of the speech America was a distant second in a two horse race. Americans united behind a common & patriotic cause, inspired by JFK's visionary leadership, and quotes like this:

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others too."
 
Inslee & Hendricks, of ApolloAlliance.org, call for a second Apollo mission, this time to unite & inspire America's innovators, workers, and consumers to move off fossil fuels and wholly to renewable fuels, thus saving Planet Earth. I won't be surprised if Obama's speechwriters cut and paste many parts of this book, and this call to arms, to be a major part of his acceptance speech. If some freak occurrence lets John McCain win on Tuesday, his speech will also be dotted with rhetoric from this New Apollo Energy Mission. This approach worked in the 60's, and was one of JFK's great legacies; I hope the same will be true for Obama and the New Apollo Energy mission.

Even oil tycoon T Boone Pickens is a convert, and has been running as many adverts as the Obama & McCain camps, calling on America to break America's addiction to foreign oil (which keeps on going up), by investing in and switching to a combination of renewable energies.

The Great Consumer
Failing the take-off of this New Apollo Mission, with everyone focusing on extinguishing Bush & Greenspan's fire instead, there is one other factor that makes America so important, and here's where you come in: America the Great Consumer. By Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rankings America is the largest producer in the world. The other side of the account, more importantly and more accurately, is that America is the biggest spender - the biggest market with people consuming more of most products and services than any other country. Not only does America use trade sanctions to kick non-complying rogue states in the balls - basically consumer boycotts - the carrot of receiving "Most Favoured Nation" status has been behind many ally co-operation strategies, such as John Howard's Australia. Unfortunately for many Bush supporters, in the last 8 years due to his economic mismanagement he has given away America's crown jewels to the rest of the world. The entire financial system is on a line of credit to China and others, and even the All-American beer Budweiser is now Belgian-owned. As Joseph Stieglitz point out, America just doesn't own that much of America Inc anymore.

Should this then mean that, whatever an American does or does not think about the environment, the rest of the world will be selling them more environmentally-friendly products and services? Toyota builds its American cars in America (hence contributes to American GDP not Japans) but is essentially selling a more environmentally friendly, Japanese-designed product.

Business Wits
Nothing is more American than Capitalism: the idea that customers are free to choose who they buy their eggs and cars and healthcare from, with capital flowing to whoever and whatever those with money choose to send it to. If it were not for the housing, credit card, and dot com 2.0 bubbles, I’d say we are in a Green bubble right now. Richard Branson makes no apologies for admitting that he is in the clean-tech sphere to make money.

Being green, or shouting about being eco-friendly, has attracted additional market share for many companies world wide in recent years. This revenue increase probably won't last. I don't mean we won't always care about buying eco-friendly products, I mean here that Being Green will go the same way that Air Conditioning did for the sale of cars. Back in 1989, my Dad bought a Honda Accord specifically because it had Air Conditioning as standard, unlike the other cars on his shortlist. Nowadays, every car has Air Conditioning, so it is no longer a deal-breaker; it is merely necessary to even get your product on the shortlist

Fortunately for the environment, businesses have two ways of increasing their profits and increasing wealth: they can increase their sales revenues, or reduce their costs. Better still, do both. A growing contingent of businessmen & women are realising that being green can simultaneously tick these two boxes. On the cost side, reducing costs that don’t add any benefit, i.e. waste, usually reduces your impact on the environment. The same applies for homes- nothing had more impact on reducing fuel consumption than this summer’s gas (petrol) prices being $4 a gallon, compared to the $2 or less drivers paid in when they bought their huge 9 miles per gallon vehicles.

The Vast Landscape
Two thirds of America's oil consumption, therefore 1 gallon of every 6 in the world, is used to transport Americans and their items. One reason why this number is so big is because of the sheer space each American has. A big divisive factor in America is the suburbia-dweller vs. the urbanites. Out of town big box stores, cookie-cutter estates, the gas guzzling 4x4s that get them there, a lack of public transport, and often not even a pathway, would be shoe-ins for a Greedy America postcard. It didn't occur to me until recently, whilst talking over dinner to a Phoenix professor of town planning, that we in the UK would have done the exact same exile to suburbia, or rural villages, if we had the space that America does. Each American has 8 times as much land available to live, work and play on, as each one of us in the UK. Having 20% of their population, but only 2.5% of their land, forces us to cram together on the tube each morning (and makes the tube viable), and put up with the neighbours blaring out George Michael at 5 o clock in the morning. Can you tell me you wouldn't run a mile from that if you could? Typically, the richer you are the more space you have. The fortunate thing for suburban Americans, and the unfortunate thing for the planet, is the cover charge into the out-of-town club isn't so exclusive over there. And because they hardly tax their fuel, getting around doesn't even put them off. Or didn't, before the price of a barrel of oil shot up to $147 (and subsequently more than halved since).

Or, In Reality, Not That United
This is where I eat my words, and admit that my "enlightened" understanding of the States back when I was a student, when I had only been to Florida, California, and Hawaii’s, and had not yet met or married my Minnesotan wife, was more ignorant than the generalised accusation pointed towards Americans. I, like many others, fell for the PR campaign, and the UK media view, that the United States of America was, well, united. If the most democratic country elected George W. Bush as president, and hadn't rioted afterwards, then they must all be fans. I should have known, given that we call ourselves the United Kingdom, and are anything but.

Not only are there many Americans that are already greener than you and I, there are a plethora of different sales pitches to convince the remaining ones.  One single call to have less impact on the natural world around us isn’t going to convince all 300 million, nor would it necessarily in the UK.

I think America will eventually come good on it's environmental policies and lifestyle.  There are many different areas of needed growth, of course, but behind that there are just as many areas of greatness that will prove to motivate, teach and push for change.   It gives me hope that the USA will share the planet with the rest of us, for generations to come.

Meanwhile, though, I put great hope it that election buzzword that grew a tiny grassroots campaign from a little-known Illinois Senator into arguably the most phenomenal election the US has ever seen:  change.

We flew west, into wind and sun and a smattering of sand-covered dots over water.  I was expecting Samoa to be the stereotype of paradisaical island life:  low-slung palms on crisp white sand, flanked by turquoise waters, curiously coloured fish and rainbow reefs.  Some part of me was slightly disappointed that it lived up to my exceedingly high expectations. 

Seriously.  Samoa, like, blew my mind.

We stayed the whole eight days at Virgin Cove, a place I knew nothing about, which Jon dug out of some obscure Internet recommendation.  Set remotely in a fishing village on the south of the island, and run by villagers and one Samoan/Swedish family, the rustic resort was simply a set of roughly constructed wooden huts - called fales (and pronounced "fall-eh") - left totally open save for rungs of palm-leaf shutters, perched high on the edge of the high tide sand.  They only got electricity last year (thanks to the installation of a few small solar panels), and while the bathrooms were actual flushing toilets in a wee outhouse, the showers were still a spicket hanging off a tree in the middle of sandy open forest.   A main house gathered people for meals, drinks and the fabulous Saturday evening "feafea", and every morning one of the village chiefs guided guests through a traditional Samoan activity - from basket-weaving, to making fire by rubbing sticks, to climbing up a palm tree to harvest coconuts - but other than that the time and space was left free for wandering the lava rock flanked beaches.

It was certainly the most holistic tourist experience we've encountered, so far.  It was "eco" without emblazoning it on tourist brochures and websites; it was organic simply by harnessing traditional Samoan culture; it was local at the purest level.

We considered this one evening, while chatting with other guests.  There was something so very refreshingly genuine about Samoa, itself - something that had caught the attention of author Robert Louis Stevenson and been immortalised in stories like Treasure Island - and we wondered what it was.  Was it the family tribal system, whereby people are held accountable within very small groups, and therefore less likely to fall into crime or extreme poverty?  Was it the culture which promoted and exalted family life and respect of elders?  Was it the spiritual appreciation for island flora and fauna, for the sea and the weather?  Was it simply being in an island, and knowing that there's no where to go for miles and miles of ocean, so they might as well all get along and respect their environment?

These are good questions.

While we couldn't really ever know the answer without being Samoan, ourselves, we did get the chance to witness something remarkable.

I heard voices on the beach at dawn, one morning, and rose to see a collection of small dug-out canoes skimming across the edge of the reef, as the sun was coming up orange over the island.  We also watched as villagers padded out with lines and nets to the point just beyond our view.  While we had seen fisherman in the morning before, we had certainly never seen them in numbers this many, and while we watched for awhile, the day was still too young and the fisherman too busy to find out.  We went back to sleep and waited until breakfast. 

According to the village chief showing us that morning's Samoan cultural activity, the fisherman were out catching the once-yearly Pololu, a skinny worm-like creature that migrates through Samoa one day every year, after the "yellow moon" in October.  The fish is prized much like caviar and thought an important spiritual dish (and aphrodisiac!), and the entire village helps one morning, every year, to go and harvest it.

I'm not sure why this touched me like it did, but I guess I reverted back to the tiny English village where I lived, and I tried to imagine the whole village getting up at dawn to wander around fishing or hunting for a once-a-year species.  It seems pretty laughable. 

Whatever the case, it certainly makes the community element of environmentalism very apparent.  On a small island like Upolu, not only is it detrimental to chuck trash on the ground and chemicals in the water for the sake of the ecosystem, but it affects life very personally, as well.  There, the line between environment and person seems a very short one, and therefore little is done to the trees or the water that would hurt the culture of the tribe, itself.

Virgin Cove, too, is a great example of this.  From the beams to the walls, the elements that create the fales there are island-made and renewable, are low-impact (set on palm stilts on the beach is a pretty good way to go) and made to last through salt-soaked winds and rain of the wet season.  Other than a few electric cords and rocks to guide the path from the main house to the fales, there is nothing there (save a good daily raking) to stop the forest from growing back over and absorbing it back into the island.  The people, there, too, are a great example.  A few village families band together to form the cooks, the cleaners, and waiters and the hosts - about 45 people in all (at a great benefit to the community) - and they bring along their brothers, sisters, parents and children to provide the dinner music, and the dancing at the feafea.  Even the owner's adorable toddler crawled out and jiggled with the dancers as they twisted their hips to Samoan songs.

This place, this island.  Walking there, on the beach, watching crabs scuttle into their holes, and birds flit from tree to tree, it's an ode to simplicity, to another era.  It's a call-back to paradise, perhaps.  A reminder of our environmental Eden.