Frugal Green Living: Posters for the Movement

Treehugger has often used illustrations of WWII posters, noting how the issues that were so important then, like food production, waste and travel, have come around again. While cruising around looking for an image, I discovered a post on another site, Underconsideration, that linked to terrific sources in Canada and the USA. In Canada, McGill University in Montreal has a collection of war posters that is the source of this plea for frugality. Credit: Canadian War Poster Collection

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Fish & Vegetables

Eating lower on the food chain lets the troops eat the high density stuff, but studies showed after the war that people at home were never healthier. Credit: McGill War Poster Collection

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Waste Not Want Not

We do go on about the virtues of canning, and of course, listening to mom. Credit:Canadian War Poster Collection

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Planting a Garden

And don't forget about listening to the kids about planting a garden! Credit:Canadian War Poster Collection

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Waste No Food

The Americans were late to the party and their first attempts were, shall we say, a bit lame on the inspiration and graphic design, but they did have content down pat! Credit:unknown

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Car Sharing

But they soon got the hang of it and were turning out great stuff, like this poster promoting car sharing. National Archives

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Save Gas

Seriously. Could you drive alone after seeing this? Fortunately they didn't have inflatables then. National Archives

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Gardens and Canning

The Minneapolis public library has a great collection of posters promoting one of our favorite subjects: gardens and canning. Grow your own had a different connotation when I was younger, but is back to its original meaning. Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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Fighting Famine

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Canning

After you grow it, of course you have to can it. Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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Green Your Home

It isn't just about food; they had some pretty good advice on how to green your home for winter. Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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Enough

Living with less is not a new idea either. Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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Travel Less

George Monbiot was not the first to suggest that we should travel a bit less. Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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Stay at Home

My favourite stay-at-home image. Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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I'll Carry Mine too

When you do shop, be sure that you walk home, it saves a lot of fuel and rubber. It's not a wacky idea. Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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For Victory

Nobody slouched about recycling Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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Save Waste Fats

And where they collected grease for explosives, we now do it for biodiesel. Credit: Minneapolis Public Library

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Car Pooling

Fortunately the art of the great propaganda poster has not been lost to history. Micah Wright has remixed or reinvented dozens of them, some appropriate for TreeHugger and others perhaps too political. Credit: Micah Wright

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Cheap Oil

But it is great to see that the medium is alive and well. Credit: Micah Wright

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Keep Calm

And remember, no matter what, keep calm and carry on. Credit: Keep Calm Gallery