by Barry Rafkind in Arts and Culture, Economy & Poverty, Environment and Open Space
Posted on November 26, 2009 at 9:52 am
Last Modified on November 26, 2009 at 9:53 am
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It looks like the climate crisis is taking a back seat to the economic crisis as Mayor Curtatone and the Somerville Arts Council promote the annual Illuminations Holiday Tour, “the annual trolley tour of holiday light displays” around the city. Certainly, keeping the holiday lights off is the least we could do to help reduce our carbon footprint. The Dec 19th event is being sponsored by Johnnie’s Foodmaster and Starbucks.
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Yeah, I’m just old enough that the realization that we have to start to build new celebratory traditions really rankles, but awake enough to know it for the truth. If only we could power the lights off of the vibrations of speeders bouncing over potholes!
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We could probably also power the lights with all the energy leaking through the poorly insulated walls of old Somerville homes and buildings.
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I understand what you’re saying, but I’d hate to abandon this event, which brings together so many people from old and new Somerville alike, and is the Somerville Arts Council’s main fundraiser of the year.
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With all the creative talents in this city, we’ve got to be able to come up with some good alternatives. Maybe a multi-cultural performance show or battle of the bands.
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i propose that to be better citizens of the earth, we do whatever we can to stamp out unnecessary joy or beauty. who wants to join me in starting a campaign to eliminate all flower gardens in somerville, and replacing them with organically grown root vegetables?
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Not sure where you’re coming from, CAP.
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Hear-here, CAP! I’m already lobbying the city to cut down all city-owned trees, so we can reduce our carbon footprint by allowing the city to cut back on street sweeping.
Barry: I think CAP’s bringing up the quality of life issue here. Bringing a little joy into our humdrum lives, and all that. You want to talk about the city converting to solar-powered or LED light displays, I’m all ears.
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That’s an interesting idea, going technorrific… It would be funny if you could even make some part of it (maybe at City Hall?) participatory, in that people could hop on stationary-bike generators to light up “bonus” displays. Or maybe try the luminarias that I found so alarming in Florida (REAL fire, OMGWTFBBQ!!!11!) but never seemed to cause any trouble, and would be doubly harmless in a Somerville December.
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I like the bike idea, Columbine. Would the luminarias be attached to homes? If so, that would probably be an unacceptable fire hazard.
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The luminarias I’ve seen are just little brown paper bags, partially filled with sand, with the rims turned out for in wind, and a votive candle in a glass placed inside, lined up along paths. You can draw on the bags, everything from spelling out MERRY CHRISTMAS to individual characters from the Nativity, Christmas trees, stars, Santa, etc. Given how wet our Decembers tend to be, there wouldn’t be much hazard at all.
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Tricky, as I understand it, street sweeping is important to get rid of chemicals that drip from automobiles and would otherwise wash into our water system when it rains. I don’t think fallen leaves have much to do with it.
I share the value of having enjoyable activities that cheer people up, but I believe we need to find more environmentally sustainable ways to operate, like the great ideas you mentioned.
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I’m all for promoting more energy-efficient lighting, including Christmas lighting. And I think the city can do this without eliminating an annual event that so many of us look forward to each year.
(Full disclosure: I’ve been a volunteer at the Illuminations Tour for many years now, greeting folks at the City Hall table and selling tickets, cards, and maps.)
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Illuminating Moments
In order that the much- maligned voices insisting we stop delaying Planetary Damage Control do not, again, take undue heat for showing us the environmental costs of what for many is a very special holiday tradition, I propose the following:
1)
That Somerville designate a 2 hour block of time each day- or each week-end day- during which holiday lights may be displayed. Or maybe devise a schedule of staggered hours, by Ward, during which neighborhoods would glow, so that if you wish to view lights in Wards One and Two, you would do so from 5-7PM, Wards Three and Four from 6-8, and so on.
2) The increased auto emissions resulting from numerous autos independently touring the city to view the many beautiful holiday spectacles is an important environmental impact of this beloved tradition. This problem could be greatly mitigated by the season- long provision of trolleys, vans, horse- drawn carriages, etc. to ferry residents and tourists along special routes. It could also make the tour available to those numerous residents to whom the tour is currently inaccessible.
3) Additionally, the City could institute a Holiday Lite program in which a public/private partnership could underwrite the wholesale purchase of energy- efficient lighting that would be sold cheaply to those who trade-in their old, energy- inefficient lighting.
Finally, lest we squander a golden opportunity to practice a golden rule (It is better to give than to receive), some of the money that might be realized by operating tours for an entire month could be used to subsidize the cost of a ride; better yet, let the City and the Arts Council continue to collect revenue under the event’s current schedule, but consider offering rides to the public at affordable prices.
For that matter, has anyone explored the maximum price people are willing to pay for a ticket? Why not designate one night’s tour a charity event, charge whatever the market will bear per ride, allow the City (and/or other sponsor(s)) to recoup costs, and use the balance to return funds recently cut from sorely- needed programs and services in the city?
Oh- and Barry- this coal mine we call Planet Earth needs its canaries, now more than ever. Keep on.
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I haven’t seen any numbers, and I can’t speak to this specific event, but I think keeping up holiday traditions–even if they involve lots of electricity–is important.
People need fun, good looking things to be happy even if they don’t need them to just survive.
We could probably save the environment and money by living in drab concrete block homes and only using those new fangled swirly lights. But concrete is ugly and those lights hurt my eyes.
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Skyler – it’s true that people need fun, good looking things to be happy, but the false dichotomy between fun/good looking/happy and responsible just causes confusion. If you look at some of the newer green architectural designs, they’re actually quite beautiful, and will soon be affordable for folks who are now stuck with “drab concrete block homes” that also cost them a fortune to heat.
The way to keep enjoying ourselves – and actually still be here to do it – is to innovate; find/devise/envision things that are beautiful, fun, delicious, interesting, and useful without making a mess that we can’t clean up. And soon LED lights will be down to where you can afford them too.
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I second Columbine’s warning against the false dichotomy of sustainability v. enjoyability.
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You guys are funny. We have Intrepid wanting the city/government to regulate fun and then tax it. Intrepid, remember if it’s yellow let it mellow… if it’s brown flush it down. Well, I bet you’d propose flushing it down only between the hours of 5 and 7, right? In your opinion, is there any tax too high, anything the gov’t shouldn’t tax and regulate?
And then we have Barry/Columbine and a few of you others tripping all over yourselfs’ yapping about a theory that has recently been debunked. Do you guys read the news in between sips of your latte? You ought to…. global warming is a made up “catastrophe” that has made empty suits like Al Gore very rich. That’s all it ever was about.
I’m off to turn every light on in the city – and keep it on for days. I may even rip the insulation out of my houses now. Just to hear you guys wail, moan, pull your hair out and gnash your teeth in pain.
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I have to say I think it would be a mistake to abandon this event. However, I do take it seriously when I hear that Boston rates fourth among American cities that will be damaged by rising ocean levels (after Miami, New York, and New Orleans). How far above sea level is your house, Xumi?
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It’s not a choice between abandoning versus continuing, it’s about finding joyous ways of evolving our behaviors and traditions so that our children and their children will have the luxury of continuing them. We can’t tune out the reality of the physical world because it’s inconvenient or difficult to address. We need to wake up and get creative and have fun changing the way we do things. We are sleepwalking into disaster. But the alternative doesn’t have to be painful:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/12/02/copenhagens-christmas-tree-will-be-pedal-powered/
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At the risk of sounding like an annoying hipster:
This.
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Any of you knuckleheads that believe Al “private jet/Mcmansion” Gore’s global warming hoax deserve to have your money fleeced. It’s been debunked.
In the meantime; I pledge to never recycle and turn on every light I can find.
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If you are not concerned about global warming, then you must live on a high hill or some other area that won’t be swamped by rising sea level from melting glaciers.
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Turn on every light you can find, what, do you have free electricity?
Here’s a better idea: set your money directly on fire. You’ll leave a larger carbon footprint that way.
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