Hello Everyone,
So here we are again, celebrating Earth Day, and more than any previous year, it feels to me like green is going mainstream. What do you think, am I being too optimistic? Or is the Berekely microclimate skewing my perception?
A green mainstream is a fantastic thing... as more and more people start thinking meaninfully about daily choices with their planetary (and local environmental) impact in mind, we have more of a chance to save our environment, and to restore what's already damaged. We can argue about the magnitude of the change endlessly, but the bottom line is more awareness can only be better. What's worrying about the shift of green to mainstream is the increasing quantity of mis-information and over-simplification (distributed by people who don't understand the issues), dis-information (distribued by people who understand, but distort the issues), and greenwashing (which we're all to familiar with). As the message goes more mainstream, the core of the movement doesn't have as much control over the content of the messages that get to the public.
My thought is this: while in the past, much of our focus has been spreading the word about more sustainable ways of living, I think it's becoming extremely important to start thinking about how and where we want environmental information vetted, and to start passing the word about trusted sources... so that when the choices become confusing because of more and more environmental info in the media stream, the choices about where to go to get the bottom line, the straight talk so to speak, becomes clear.
To tie the thought into a book (as usual), I'd like to offer up Ellis Jones' newly updated "Better World Handbook" as a place that I get information I trust.
If anyone has thoughts / or other trusted sources, please share!
jill
