The Green Police

I was walking through the neighborhood a couple of days ago and I noticed a great deal of water streaming down the gutter, crossing the street and going into the drain. I followed it and came to a house that had gorgeous lawn with the sprinkler system running. The yard was so soaked that the water was not able to penetrate the soil and instead ran down into the gutter and down the street.

Normally, I would not do anything as I feel that every person has the right to do as he or she wishes toward greenliness, but this was a huge amount of water just heading down the street and into the drain. I noticed someone on the side of the house working in a garden. I walked over to her and remarked to her that there was a lot water running down the gutter and into the drain. I told her I figured she wasn't aware and just wanted to let her know.

The lady stood up and walked out to the front driveway. She stared at the water running down the street and then turned to me and said, "So who are you? The green police?" I apologized for causing her any problems and left. I knew this was a fight that didn't need to be fought. I did find it interesting that she called me the green police and not the water police so I guess she was aware of green initiatives.

About 15 minutes later, on my way back home, I passed the house and the water was off. I am not sure if the lady turned it off because of my remarks or if it was on a timer. Look, I was just trying to be helpful and I don't want to be perceived as a green cop, but the amount of water being wasted on that yard was quite significant. I love nice yards. I have a nice yard. I water my yard within the guidelines set by the city I live in and I would want to know if my water was being wasted like her was. I guess I learned a lesson.

Anyway, don't worry. I am not coming to your town to rat you out and I did not and would not rat out this lady for her wastefulness. I just wanted to tell the story of how I became the GREEN POLICE. Oh yeah, that is not me in the picture. I just thought it made for a good accompanying picture for this article.

The modern Green Police are an environmental task force comprised of collaborative law enforcement groups assembled to crack down on emissions in large US metropolitan cities.

It is assembled as the active arm of political debates amongst policy holders in the fight against climate change. Also, it is seen by agencies as some of the first real world action in the United States since the discussion in Copenhagen.

In the UK, the Green Police, based in Warrington, Cheshire, have the authority to call on the Environmental Agency's national network of hundreds of pollution inspectors, many of whom will soon be trained in CO2 monitoring. The Green Police will also be able to demand energy bills from utilities without having to inform the companies that they are being monitored. If that's not enough, the green police will also publish an annual league table ranking companies by their performance in cutting emissions. The intent is to "shame" companies into better energy efficiency.