Going Green: Taking it one step at a time

Although it was written in November of 2007, the arguments in Professor Michael Maniates’ article “Going Green? Easy doesn’t do it” are still relevant to our world today. The only difference is that the environmental problems that plague our society seem to be getting worse while the pace of our actions seem to be the same, if not slower and more apathetic.

The fact is that going green is considered “trendy” nowadays. It’s everywhere but with most trends, people want an easy way out. The minute and easy little steps that they can do to seem like a friend to the planet is their way of participating and being a part of the green movement with as little effort as possible. Is this ideal? No, it is not. We want people to care about the environment. We want them to take real action and not be complacent with just doing what they think if their fair contribution. We want people to rethink their consumer-oriented lifestyle. However, we also do not want to overlook the importance of doing the small things. Constantly reinforcing those habits in a way that produces discussion of the environmental issues is a good thing.  A lot of people do not have the time or money to be as environmentally friendly as they would like to be. In the short run, it costs more to be environmentally friendly sometimes than it does to just blindly consume and throw away the finite resources available. Our problems seem to extend much further than just not doing enough.

As mentioned in my previous post, the privileged few on this planet that shameless consume far more than their “fair share” of this earth do so in blissful ignorance; ignorance of the scope of the environmental problems that we, as humans, are contributing to the supple world surrounding us.  Ignorance, not the coddling of the masses by environmental elitist, is the root of the problem. How can people demand more drastic action if they are not properly educated on it? In a country where people still doubt the existence of global warming, trying to force drastic action on the public is not going to change much. People need to possess the desire to change the way we consume and dispose of things.  At the same time, they also need to be properly informed on the issue. Unfortunately, it could take a lot of time before that happens and time is a luxury at this point.