Going Green - Old School

Going ‘green’ doesn’t have to be a divisive, political issue with an exorbitant price-tag. Let’s compare high-tech, big-data, big-budget solutions to the old-school methods and then ask why the old ideas aren't being promoted. Up front, it seems the main difference is the level of abstraction in your lifestyle – or the degrees of separation between you and the things you depend on to live. If your dinner came from Uber Eats, there might be six or more sets of hands and thousands of miles of transportation from field to table.. and each set of hands is paying taxes or fees to multiple layers of infrastructure. If your dinner came from the garden that you planted, then taxes and energy consumption are negligible. Most of us are so highly abstracted, we have no idea what went into the delivery of products or services. And the simpler methods mess with our sensibilities... please read on.

As a casual observer and tax-paying citizen, I associate the ‘green’ push with solar/wind power, electric vehicles, high-tech buildings, less meat, less travel, more guilt, and more organic food (and possibly less fun). What isn’t clear is where the government tax-base is going to come from when everyone lives a vastly reduced lifestyle? In other words, you obey what you’re being told to do: dig a garden, choose a smaller house, turn the lights off, walk to work or drive a few short miles, buy less stuff and spend more time socializing with neighbors in a private setting. Now you’re burning far less fuel, using less infrastructure and depending less on government agencies to keep everything afloat. Tax revenue drops on all counts. So governments at all levels are going to have to reduce size/budget accordingly. But now you are ‘saving the planet’. Where is this happening in North America? And how is it working out?

If you rank the States by their carbon emissions, towards the cleaner end of the spectrum are South Dakota and New Hampshire. But the test case here will be Nova Scotia – in the same ballpark as these cleaner States. But why Nova Scotia? The 400 year old region is closer to New York and Boston than it is to Toronto. Its population density is relatively low – equal to 170-Million if the entire US had the same population density. It’s carbon footprint is minuscule. And I’m personally very familiar with the region and its people. Despite being comfortably between Western Europe and the rest of North America, Nova Scotia seems to lie outside of the blast range of a hypothetical EMP attack whenever such maps are published. This isn't part of the 'green' equation but its something we talk about. Anything that has been accomplished in Nova Scotia, should be as easy (or easier) to accomplish elsewhere in North America where longer growing seasons and deeper soils persist.. But going 'green' is more than just a reduced carbon footprint.. it should account for quality of life, cultural strength, and the independence of the individual to pursue their own dreams.

I maintain sets of friends in several regions around North America – each pursuing very different lifestyles. When the subject of Nova Scotia real-estate kept coming up in different places, we took a hard look and ended up putting some skin in the game. For example, comparing Nova Scotia, Virginia, Florida and Southern Ontario by population, GDP, public debt and average house price, these regions are comparable (on a per capita basis)– except that the house prices are more than double in Ontario. Noting that remote workers and retirees are now moving to Nova Scotia in increasing numbers led to discovery that the Province is far ahead of most other regions in quality of life, carbon footprint, price structures and taxes – hence this article. But there is less abstraction in the 'green' lifestyle of that region. This messes up a lot of people. The Washington Post ran a story many years ago where the writer bought ocean-front, sight-unseen.. then fantasized about his awesome deal until he stepped foot on the property he'd purchased. It wasn't just the aesthetics, but understanding how close his new neighbors lived to the land (and sea). He couldn't deal with it and cashed out.

Public debt in Nova Scotia appears to come in around $1,700 per person (this excludes the Canadian federal government of course!) – well below average for the continent and certainly far below the projected outcome of a ‘green new deal’ for the average American. So how green is Nova Scotia? Those who settled there over the centuries had to operate within limited resources and very little government burden. The idea of a smaller home, a working garden, seasoned firewood, and a protein diet supplemented from local fish & game has remained the lifestyle for a continuing large percent of the population. Everyone hears about micro-homes these days. This region has been doing micro-homes for centuries. But many who try to move into the Province from larger urban centers actually have a hard time dealing with this. We in the West (including myself) live abstracted lives where our food and fuel are made somewhere else, and our work has little to do with the surrounding lands. We simply drive ten miles to a big box store and pick up everything on a credit-card. You might be surprised how this affects your subconscious. For example, one would-be migrant tried to move from Toronto to the fishing town of Canso Nova Scotia (pop. 800) with it’s bold, unspoiled landscape. He lasted 24 hours – placing the key to his newly purchased home under a rock, informing the real-estate agent that he was abandoning the place immediately. My wife and I were curious, so we took a drive around Canso's residential streets. Yes, they're clean and well-maintained. But when you see a fishing boat, a pile of firewood, tools leaned up against the house, laundry on the clothesline and realize these things aren't hobbies, it can cause a strange reaction.

Another off-putting thing for the modern, cosmopolitan professional is the lack of recognizable retail chains. While local hardware and grocery stores in the rest of the continent have been replaced by centralized, mega-retailers, this region escaped the massacre because the economics didn't support centralization. Instead, you will find co-ops and local/regional outfits doing quite well. In fact, this brings up the whole big-data question.. I've been dealing in data analytics for 30+ years in the US and Canada. I appreciate how the economy of scale benefits people in so many ways. But it can't solve every problem. And you always have those areas that lay outside the reach of your algorithm. In many parts of Nova Scotia, the David and Goliath battle is still being won by David. How is any of this supposed to be more 'green'? I don't know... less need for large scale infrastructure? Less reliance on long-haul transportation? The simplest measure might be clean lakes and rivers, an abundance of fish that you can actually eat, less ambient noise outside, and fewer airplanes overhead. If that's a good measure, let's just hand the prize over to Nova Scotia and end the discussion.

Tino Winter had sold us a 5-acre property for under $100K – complete with mature forest, apple trees, and breathtaking ocean views. Annual taxes are several hundred dollars/year and it isn’t likely they’ll rise much because the vast majority in this region can’t (and won’t) support massive tax increases for any reason. All of this is important to the discussion. Not only do the residents of Nova Scotia consume less than their North American cousins, they are far better prepared to ride out whatever disasters might hit the rest of the world. Tino is one such resident. He was raised in East Germany until the breakup of the Soviet Union, whereupon he started going West… and kept going until he found Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. His reasons for choosing the region above all others on the continent were pretty much the same as ours for returning to invest there. Tino Winter embodies the old-school 'green' lifestyle. Imposing enough to have been a star in the WWE, he wrestles a living from real-estate, construction contracting, a handful of trade-skills, and a list of projects to last the coming decade. He also volunteers as a fire-chief and member of the regional search-and-rescue team. The only thing bigger than any of this, is the size of his heart. He once assisted a local resident with home repairs – knowing the owner did not have the cash to pay him. Turning to leave, he said the the guy “don't worry about it” .. but ended up accepting some local produce as a means of payment. Like so many others in the region, Tino responds to a wide variety of local issues – often solving problems that would have required crews, equipment and budgets well outside the true definition of 'green'. But if you'e lucky enough to visit his lake-front log home with its centerpiece 14-foot long kitchen table, hand crafted from a single slab of African hard-wood, you might be tempted to conclude that Tino made a fortune in hedge funds.

This article may sound more like a sales-pitch for one, small corner of North America, than a proper discussion of going 'green'. Yet I would beg to differ. As a purveyor of technology and data-analytics, I embrace the efficiencies of scale wherever they bring benefit. But local solutions need to be factored in. Consider the well-known account of a certain large nation that went through massive cultural purges, death and starvation just a few decades ago (in their quest for modernization). The story goes that millions in the countryside were able to survive with a garden and a few animals in a space less than that of the modern American back-yard. Make sure that you go green in your own way, and use every efficiency at your disposal.?

Let's end this on a positive note. The friends and neighbors in Nova Scotia are among the friendliest we've ever met. We didn't have to find them. They found us - shortly after arriving. The combination of sea coast, mountains, lakes, rivers and towns makes this one of the loveliest and under-exploited regions on the planet. Motorcycle enthusiasts - including myself - find some of the most amazing trails in comparison with say Ontario, Virginia and Florida.