A Very Green Holiday

I wish that everyone turned green, and I don’t mean green like the Grinch. I mean green as in striving for a sustainable future. I mean environmentally conscious and active.

We all — in theory — are environmentalists. Yet, that is precisely the problem. We have adopted the attitude that politicians, Democrat or Republican, will solve our environmental problems. All we have to do is sit back and vote for the right candidate and things will change. We have thoughts and theories about what good environmental policy is. Consequently, our thoughts should be enough and politicians will follow our well-informed policy on the environment. How is this strategy working for us?

I’m not a child of the sixties, but I always admired those activists because they always put their money where their mouths were. If they believed in civil rights, they sat where they wanted on the bus and marched or boycotted. If they believed in gender equality, they took off their clothes and marched or boycotted. If they believed in saving the planet, they chained themselves to trees and marched or boycotted. We don’t do that. We just talk about policies that our politicians should advance.

We need to take a page from the 60’s playbook — guide the politicians toward the right choices by way of our actions. Guide companies toward greater environmental stewardship by voting with our pocketbooks. Instead of sitting back and asking others to do for us, we need to take the "in theory" out of calling ourselves conservationists and environmentalists.

What can you do? Answer the question for yourself and then act upon the answer consistently. . . and my Christmas dream will come true.