Green Albania?

A few weeks ago, I did a few lessons on the environment. As usual, I supplemented the material in the books with new and relevant information. It’s a real shame that some of that information from some major reports ended up being false (IPCC report) and in turn gave credence to climate change skeptics.

One of the resources I looked at while putting together my lesson plan was an issue of Deutschland Magazin that my parents sent about the then upcoming Copenhagen conference. We hear so much about global warming and the environment, but most of us know so little. And just like most things in the digital age, it’s difficult to wade through the sea of information written on both sides of the topic.

But one thing really got my interest. The magazine had a section about ways to reduce our carbon footprint and little things you can do to save energy. The article stated that not using a clothes dryer saves 300 kilos of CO2 from the environment. The same amount can be saved by turning the AC off for four hours a day or by buying regional products. The meat production industry also contributes to environmental problems, so eating one less kilo of meat per week prevents 700 kilos of CO2 from harming the environment. Manual cars save 330 kilos annually.

Oddly enough, all of these things apply to Albania. For starters, we don’t have central air or heating. Instead, we have sleeping bags / pajamas / and the necessity to wear several layers in winter. Yes, Albania has its environmental problems, especially with pollution. No one has a clothes dryer, although some are imported from Italy. A popular pastime here in the winter is “wet, or just cold: the Albanian laundry game.” It takes days for clothes to dry because we put them outside… and that’s assuming it goes a few days in a row without rain, which is highly unlikely. The Albanian diet, at least what I’m experiencing, is composed of limited amounts of meat. We have very small pieces of meat with most meals, but nothing at all like what we have at home. It’s very uncommon for me to eat an entire chicken breast in one setting, which is pretty common at home.

That isn’t to say that Albania isn’t without its environmental problems. Pollution runs rampant in developing countries. Problems with infrastructure can also cause problems, like poor engineering that causes flooding and erosion or poor general usage of resources. However, as Westerners, we have a lot we could learn. If one requirement for being called a “developed” country is the amount of available amenities, then isn’t part of what it means to be “developed” is to be wasteful? As “leading” countries in the world with power, wealth and technology in our hands, isn’t it shameful that we can’t set good examples?