Rubbish across cultures

I have just returned from a trip to Florida, where I was shocked by American attitudes to the environment. Large, gas-guzzling cars seem to be used for even the shortest journeys. My attempts to reduce my carbon footprint failed completely. I switched off the air conditioning in my hotel room in the morning only to find that in the evening it had been switched on to full power by the cleaning staff. In one hotel, the breakfast was served on plastic plates with plastic knives and forks. Looking forward to a cool beer in a beautiful restaurant in Key West, at the most southern point of continental USA, I was disappointed to have it served in a plastic cup.

Meanwhile, back home in Europe, I saw another example of environmental confusion. “Where shall I put my chewing gum?” asked a guest at a party in the southern German town of Tübingen. The man was looking at the large number of waste bins in the kitchen. There were separate bins for biological waste, paper, metal, plastic, glass and the rest.

These examples may seem trivial, but they illustrate some fundamental cultural values. As always, it is difficult to analyse them precisely and there is always the danger of stereotyping. The German behaviour perhaps combines a concern for the environment with a desire for order. The US example shows a confidence in man’s ability to control nature as well as a desire for speed, freedom and mobility and a belief in the limitlessness of human resources. My reaction to the plastic cup of beer was probably connected with aesthetics just as much as the environment.

Attitudes to nature and the environment vary across cultures. The differences are not only across national boundaries but also across time. In pre-industrial England, nature was commonly considered as something threatening; it took the Industrial Revolution for people to begin romanticizing about its beauty.

I suspect that the increasing awareness of the effects of climate change will bring about another paradigm shift. The challenge will be to use innovative technology to create sustainable development, while at the same time respecting fundamental cultural values and the power of nature. For me, this might mean using a few more video conferences instead of jumping on a plane each time there is a request for training abroad. This would certainly have more impact than turning off the air conditioning or refusing to drink beer from a plastic cup.