According to today’s NY Times, Juneau, Alaska, is quickly becoming the greenest ever city, and the change happened almost overnight.  And how, may you ask, did the residents of this little far-North city come to come clean and green so quickly?  Well, it was the avalanche.

Electricity rates apparently increased about 400 percent after an avalanche on April 16 knocked out several large transmission towers which delivered more than 80 percent of the community’s power.  “People are suddenly interested in talking about their water heaters,” said Maria Gladziszewski, who is in charge of special projects for the city manager.  “As they say, it’s a teachable moment.”

How are people coping?  The public sauna has been closed.  (That would be a tough choice in Juneau, I would guess.)  One elevator is operating in the library instead of two.  The temperature in the convention center is down to 60, from the former 68.  Stores ran out of clothespins, because so many people started hanging their laundry outdoors to dry.  Even schoolchildren are getting into the act, as they voluntarily sacrifice Nintendo time, boasting during show-and-tell time at school. 

Talk about a teachable moment, folks–Juneau R US.  And what can we learn?  Human beings typically do not learn from words or even pictures (an inconvenient truth), and we will not pay attention until we have to pay money.  Please, please, political leaders take note: serious policy change is all that will save us. 

And what else can we learn?  There’s just a lot of stuff we could do without, if we wanted to save the planet for our children and grandchildren.  Maybe we should start now, instead of waiting for our own avalanche, in whatever form that will take. 

Growing up in a small town in N. Louisiana, I remember how sweet those sheets used to smell when I pulled them off the clothesline.  I wouldn’t mind doing that again.  Really, I wouldn’t mind at all.