Where have all the environmentalists gone?

Plain, brown generic, unbleached table napkins.

That’s what brings this up.

Why can’t I find them any more except in specialty stores at a premium price?

Back around the 20th Anniversary of Earth Day in 1990, you could buy them everywhere — every grocery and Wal-Mart I shopped at in three western states stocked them — as well as many other bio-friendly products. National polls declared that we were all “environmentalists” then. 50 Ways to Save the Planet was riding high on the best-seller list. And most of us intentionally practiced at least 10 or 20 of those 50 ways.

And restaurants provided us with plain, manilla napkins. Because they help save our rivers and streams from the deadly dioxin created during the process required to bleach paper lilly white.

They saved us money, too. As well they should, since producing unbleached, natural colored paper napkins involves fewer manufacturing processes. And since these generic, planet friendly brands of unbleached napkins and greener detergents and dishwashing fluids and so on then being sold in groceries and K-marts and Wal-Marts weren’t launched with huge, expensive on-going television advertising campaigns, those costs weren’t tagged on to the shelf price. There is no reason in the world why I should have to pay MORE to buy unbleached table napkins at Whole Foods Market today than I do to buy the cheapest generic branded WHITE napkins anywhere else.

When was it that we shifted away from this simple, grassroots, cash-register-based environmentalism? It happened while we were making the move to big, gas-gulping SUVS. (I didn’t make that move. And didn’t realize what AWFUL mileage they got until I bought my current land that is accessed by nearly 2 miles of unmaintained clay road and I found myself in the market for a used 4×4. And started trying to find one that got 25 to 30 miles per gallon. Good luck.)

People apparently quit caring about their cars getting decent mileage sometime not too long after Earth Day 1990. I suddenly quit finding brown napkins about 16 months ago. We’re drifting away from basic, personal environmental responsibility.

I predict that will change shortly.

Hurricane Katrina was a dramatic and frightening wakeup call and convinced most people that Global Warming is a very real and urgent concern. And it drove gas prices up, up, up. They’ve bounced around a bit since, but won’t be coming down signifcantly, or for long, any time soon — if ever.

Maybe it was the world oil market collapse early in the second half of the ’90s that convinced us we should drive huge 4×4s that get about 15 mpg. Didn’t convince me. I was paying 72 to 78 cents per gallon for gas on the East Coast in 1997. I’m paying just about $3 today in New Mexico — that’s about four times as much. I was driving a Toyota MR2 and a Suburu Legacy on the East Coast. Both got slightly better than 25 mpg all around. Driving a little Mazda Protege now that gets 32 to 36 mpg. And I’m feeling the gas pinch.

(Would like to find a mid-90s, 5-speed, all-wheel-drive Suburu Legacy sedan in great shape for a fair price. It would be a sensible 4×4 and a comfortable car. And might have the ground clearance needed to maneuver my unmaintained road. Might not sink to the axles during snow melts and monsoon rains when the sand and clay get saturated.)

It’s been 16 years since the 20th Anniversary of Earth Day. The air’s murkier everywhere. Climate change is accelerating. We’re burning more oil than ever.

A movie comes out later this month. An Al Gore movie of all things. It’s about global warming.

I bet the timing is perfect. And that a new wave of environmentalism is about to sweep the country. It’s about time.

And maybe then I can buy plain unbleached paper napkins again in Albertson’s.