"there were a lot of non-green things going on back then which, thankfully, have become less prevalent: letting raw sewage run into rivers, polluting factories spewing great gobs of black smoke, and a few other things come to mind."

It possibly depends on how far you are looking back. The piece posted above refers to "the previous generation". Assuming the guy at the checkout was in his twenties (a reasonable assumption?) then he's describing the ill advised consumerism of far more recent generations than those around during the industrial revolution. Not that I disagree with you, mind you. Much bad as well as good, has come from the industrial revolution. But it's excessive consumerism (which is I would say the heart of Capitalism) which is to blame for the majority of our environmental problems today - and that is a fairly recent trend en masse. Certainly the war/post-war ethic where things were built to last rather than to be casually upgraded and disposed of, and where people valued what they had and "mended" or "made do" where needed, is one that I bemoan the loss of more collectively today.