Employing wartime conservation efforts to fight global warming

I recently received a package from my grandmother that contained a treasury of family recipes and pamphlets collected by my great grandmother during WWII. Many of the pamphlets were centered on the use of "food as a weapon" for victory in war. As one pamphlet says, "Two million men and boys from our farms are with our fighting forces. We can't let them down by failing to grow our own food wherever possible."

What strikes me most about the language is its urgency. There is a sense that those on the home front must grow a garden to ensure victory. And there was some truth to that. Not only was there a shortage of farm workers, but large quantities of food were being shipped to the war fronts. Having enough food was not a given, so those on the home front pitched in. People grew victory gardens, canned, and they certainly didn't waste any food.

Looking over the recommendations in the pamphlets, it is amazing how much the right thing to do in 1943 is still what we should be doing in 2008. In one column titled "Wartime Pointers" women are told to:

Buy and serve only as much food as you and your family need. Then lick the platter clean. The garbage can is potentially Saboteur No. 1.
Plan and carry through a Victory Garden. Can the surplus.
Raise some chickens or some pigs, if you have facilities and know how to do it. Or keep a cow to produce your own milk.
Use fresh fruits and vegetables in season. This saves tin.

These are all recommendations that could work just as well in the fight against global warming, but just look at the differences between how people talk about global warming and conservation for the war effort. "The garbage can is potentially Saboteur No.1"—I love that sentence. It makes me think of some Nazi SS officer holding a trash can out for wasted food. Trying not to waste food becomes an active effort to help win the war. But that sentence doesn't work as well in the war against global warming.

Global warming has always had the problem of being too abstract. If only it were caused by some Nazi with a ray gun; then the public would get to work fighting it. People would turn in their SUVs for the “war effort”, they would begin growing their own food and eating locally for their country, they would help erect windmills and solar panels. But it is no Nazi with a ray gun who threatens us. It is only ourselves and the abstract accumulation of gases. How will we make the threat concrete? How will we make the threat of global warming something we will all join forces to fight?

Posted by Ragan Sutterfield on Sep 23, 2008 at 11:18 AM
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Comments

Great post. I have much respect for the generation of WWII and the efforts not only abroad during that war but here at home as well. Where has this same sense of pride, urgency, and community gone? This post makes me think of your last post on acedia and the slow creeping death that comes with it. We need more WWII examples and less MTV examples for todays young people and even parents.

Posted by:Cafeened |September 23, 2008 2:56 PM