The U.S. is such a sprawling, huge country, with so many cultures. Change in a country like this is hard to implement. And many of us feel that large scale change is necessary, for people of all income levels, towards local and national economies that foster more responsible use of resources, a healthier humanity and planet.
The NY Times Room for Debate recently generated a discussion among writers and readers called “Responsible Shoppers, but Bad Citizens?” about eco-shopping and civic engagement. The point was that being a good shopper and recycler alone (e.g. as wealthier Americans sometimes choose to be) will not bring the change that is needed, even if it can reduce toxins and waste, even if it can influence policy making in business, and government. We eco-shoppers are still a small number. And residential waste makes up a small portion, compared to industrial and construction wastes. But then it eventually all supports us, and we still use more than almost anyone else.
A recent survey indicates that with regards to our guilt about our impact on the planet: “Americans, Canadians, Japanese and French feel the least, while Indians, Chinese, Mexicans and Brazilians feel the most. A very similar distribution was apparent for the question of whether citizens of different countries felt more or less “empowered” to change the situation.”
Annie Leonard’s new short filmThe Story of Change” urges viewers to put down their credit cards and start exercising their citizen muscles to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world.”
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Glad to see you finally admit that a green lifestyle is only really possible for those with time and money to spare. It’s a first world solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
What an extraordinary conclusion! “…problem that doesn’t exist”???? LOL. The interesting Economist survey Barbara Hirsch quotes notes: “That consumers in the West have a nastier impact on the environment is obvious:….” Indeed, it is.
Unfortunately, too many of the “greens” are Prius-self-righteous (not Eco-Facts, imo) and that results in smurf-like backlashes.
Epic misreading of what was written, as usual.
Bill Trent: In what way is mine an “epic misreading of what was written…”?
Good grief, has anyone writing this stuff ever travelled the rest of the world to see how those “poor” countries are now treating it?
The entire US and its millions as it stands right now, is a model of pristine virtue compared to the trash and abuse habits among the billions living outside our shores. The Prius-Pious can hand-wring all they want in the US, but their efforts are hair-shirt wearing vanity projects in ineffectiveness when one sees how all the rest of our global 7 billion plus neighbors are rapidly coming of age in both waste, toxics and consumerism.
We can stop right now in California and never do another green thing from this time forward and still be light years ahead of the rest of the planet for decades. It is time to stop choking our own California economic future with increasingly excessive and ultimately ineffectual green regulatory strangulations. No, we don’t have to keep resetting the virtuous consumer model because we are already the model for “virtuous green living” beyond any other country on this planet.
Enough already. Californians should just chill out where they are and roll up their sleeves to help boost the rest of the world to emulate California’s current standards. Take the money you save growing your own clothes and go traveling to see what you can learn from experience; not from excessive and misdirected home-groan guilt.
Guess you haven’t spent much time in Europe, if you think California is light years ahead. Are we pristinely virtuous because we properly haul our trash to landfills? So Green Meanie, should we simply give up, and not exert our citizen muscle at all?