American Media & the Green Movement: Questions for Readers to Ponder
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 11.14.08
In case you weren’t among the fifty or so people who attended 92Y Tribeca's panel discussion on American Media & the Green Movement last night, I just wanted to pass along some of the questions that popped into my mind as I listened to Annabelle Gurwitch pick the brains of green luminaries such as NPR’s Ira Flatow, the New York Times’ Andy Revkin, author Elizabeth Royte, Lynne Kirby of the Sundance Channel and TreeHugger’s very own Graham Hill.
I present this all in the form of questions that I’d like readers to consider and weigh in upon:
1. How Do We Engage Our Children in Green?
The sort of paradigm shift which is required to build a sustainable culture for a planet overloaded with homo sapiens it seems one of the most critical questions is how do we engage our children in this change? How do we communicate the seriousness of the situation in a way that holds their attention and creates the sort of values that can build a new future?
2. How Do We Define a “Decent Life”?
Intended I think as offhand description, at least twice Andy Revkin brought up what I think is the overarching green question (and one which no one wants to address): What is a decent life, in terms of natural resource consumption (read: using ‘stuff’)? As it’s an ecological impossibility that the ecological footprint of the average person in a developed nation can be scaled to all of those people in poorer nations without cleaning out the planet’s natural resource bank account, how do we make the cultural shift (in the developed world) to simply using less stuff? Buying less clothing and shoes? Buying fewer electronic devices? Eating lower on the food chain?
The luxuries of generations past (even those of ten years ago) are considered necessities now and that has to shift, but how do we do this?
3. How Do We Not Turn People Off to the Seriousness of the Situation?
While it sometimes seems my stock and trade is in seriousness, there is a real issue of not overloading people with doom and gloom. We obviously don’t want to create a fatalistic mindset of ‘well, I can’t do anything so I might as well party up’. (Though, I’ve always thought that mindset to be an entirely perplexing reaction, akin to wondering why the stereotypical famous musician trashes hotel rooms...) So, how do we find the balance between scaring people into action, convincing them action is needed, and not creating a feeling of hopelessness? We need to get beyond top 10 lists, but what’s the next logical step?
4. How Do We Get People to See the Forest and the Trees?
Ira Flatow brought up an interesting point: Sometimes when you look strictly at the numbers you come up with some counter-intuitive results. He gave the example (I presume hypothetical, don’t know if anyone’s actually tested this) that intuitively you might think that walking, rather than driving your car, to get some food at the store is always the best option, in terms of energy expended. However, if you just look at the energy consumed in the action of getting that food, the car may come out ahead. (Debate that if you like, but that’s not the point...)
Andy Revkin and Elizabeth Royte chimed in that it’s not that simple: That there are other advantages to walking beyond the strict utility of getting food, and expanded it out the myriad arguments in favor of local agriculture that go beyond strictly looking at the amount of energy consumed or absolute crop yields. There are many things under the umbrella of green that can be seen in that way: local agriculture, the value in walkable communities, localized manufacturing... I’m sure you can think of others.
So how do we get people to take the broader perspective? How do we get people to at the same time be able to balance the simple comparison of a being more efficient/using less energy/being on the surface greener than b, with greater social, cultural, and holistically green issues?
Opening image: TreeHugger founder Graham Hill showing off his Strida folding bicycle, post-panel discussion. Photo: 92Y Tribeca.
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Answer by analogy.
Go back and look at how seatbelt wearing became the norm.
Detroit argued for decades that forcing installation of seatbelts was an "onerous" requirement and making them mandatory equipment would 'make it unaffordable for people to buy cars.' (For some time, the compromise was front seat only, by the way.)
Finally belts became standard equipment and wouldn't you know, the ones put in by Detroit makers sucked for a few years while the ones in Japanese cars (which at the time had the only set of keys to the quality and customer satisfaction highway) were widely acknowledged to be far more reliable and comfortable.
Eventually states made it mandatory for seatbelts to actually be worn, and enforced the law. When this happened suddenly seatbelts became something you never gave a second thought. It is now like brushing teeth. Do it or pay the consequences.
I am afraid to sound like a dreaded "socialist" but I can not imagine a scenario where more efficient designs become the norm without government iintervention. Maybe it's just time to admit that and face the monster.
The students at the Energy Club at MIT are kicking the administration into doing the right thing on energy. They are now the driver at the Tute and you can feel the change there this year.
Listening to "On Point" on the radio, I caught the tail end of a discussion of the X Prize and how high school students are being energized by project based learning. Give them a real problem and let them invent to solve it. This is what we need to do all the way down the line.
I'd like to see media broadcast and advertise practical solutions beyond changing lightbulbs (I have an outline for a do it yourself one window solar show if anybody is interested) and whole systems thinking.
No, that does not sound socialist at all. It sounds sensible. Anyway, with Detroit on its knees begging for a (socialist-style, tax-payer funded) bailout, what is the difference.
Excellent example.
The answer to number one, about engaging children has to be at least in a major part, to lead by example. My mother went so far as to shut off the hot water in the kitchen sink and that sort of action has definitely had an effect on me. My father just converted our house to natural gas as well. Although I don't claim to be an expert and thus cannot vouch for the efficacy of these sorts of measures, their impact at least got me thinking about it at an early age.
Shoes aren't clothes?
Perhaps I can help.
I am new to treehugger. I just followed a link, kind of like Alice's rabbit, and have been devouring articles and comments alike for two weeks now.
I'm not a big fan of blogs because everyone has an opinion and most of them are conflicting. I can't see the point of sharing my (obviously) right opinion and blasting your (equally obviously) wrong one. However, I am about to make an exception.
Treehugger is advertising for new bloggers and one of the stipulations is that submitters must breathe, eat and live environmental responsibility. You seem to be looking for fanatics. It strikes me that throughout history fanatics have started things but when a movement manages to appeal to the average person it is assured of success. Unfortunately, the frequent posters to this site and many others like it sometimes come across as environmental snobs. Not the way to convince the average person to join a movement.
The average person looks mostly to themselves. They may want to embrace an ideal but unless they can see the benefit to themselves it won't amount to much.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find ways to encourage (not browbeat) people to find financially sound ways to better the envirnoment.
I don't know what the US is like but many Canadian schools are already hard at work indoctrinating our children into the beliefs of environmentally sustainable living. It's parents and the media who are most responsible for the crazy consumerism that is the envirnment's true foe and for infecting the next generation with it.
Perhaps a downturn in the economy will indeed mark a downturn in corperate support of green initiatives. But it could also be an opportunity to point out the money saving possibilities of a green lifestyle to the masses.
Submitted by An Average Person
I'm reacting to what Liz wrote. I think she's highligthing a very important issue which is how to convince the average person that there is an obvious benefit to be environmentally reasonable.
So far, only a small percentage of the population are convinced of the emergency and try to do something. But, riding a bike, using public transportation driving a Prius, saving water and eating organic may make us feel great but if we are unable to persuade the rest of the population to participate then we will fail.
I guess education is the best way but there is a lot to do.
Fifty or so people? What is this? A secret cabal of the green media elite meeting in the dead of night to decide the fate of the manipulated masses?
Maybe once we start to worry less about the spin and the superficial cosmetic appeal of green media campaigns, and more about their substance, and the need for outreach, like letting your colleagues know when you think there's something going on that might be of interest to them, rather than keeping it all to yourself so you can capitalize on it as a richly paid green pundit.
Maybe then a new model of "cooperation" vs. "competition" in the green scene will yield more positive results.
Problem everybody has to make a living... everybody is up against the wall having to pay the bills... so the green scene becomes a means, like any other, to cash in, make a buck... and the underlying reasons why we should be into this... the planet's under assault... gets diluted to simply using a trend to put food on your plate and clothes on your back.
Why? Because there's no time left, there's no community, it's not like the sixties where everyone shared a pad... unless you're a migrant worker living 12 to a room in some slimy suburb.
It's all gotten way too "chic" and not nearly enough Rock & Roll... where was the support network for Battleground Earth? Guess Van Jones wasn't quite ready yet... so now it's all gotta be done again.
We have to stop importing everything and get back to making our own stuff here at home, rebuild manufacturing facilities, restore regional agriculture... And it's going to happen by virtue of the fact people can no longer afford to buy all this crap from overseas.
The bottom is falling out because it was fueled by a lending frenzy... robbing peter to pay paul... everybody taking for granted, you thought of it, it must be mine... such philosophy where the sources of inspiration are set aside for their capitalization, where inventors no longer get the opportunity to master their own creations... so off to Asia went innovation... a military-industrial complex where everything is buried under trillions of dollars of orchestrated secrecy!
Treehugger needs to tackle some sacred cows... make allegiances with the more militant body politic, going after the real criminals... yes, our dollar has green buying power, has a voice, but that only goes so far... it puts the blame on the consumer, when the blame should really go squarely to the mindless shadow infrastructure of which puppets like Bush are just PR frontmen.
In otherwords, rather than hold these quaint little get togethers so you can all pat yourselves on the back for being such great little green innovators and model green citizens... why not put some muscle into it again... with not support direct action, get involved in rallies and protest, get the blood boiling again! Because we should be angry, not just complacent and smiling cause you just had a nice stay at an eco-spa.
Some say you need to feel good to do good... I say do good to feel good, and your work becomes your solace... therefor anyone hindering the ability of radical change to take place at a fundamental level, keeping the capitalistic status quo in place, green or no green, is a form of resistance to cosmic changes taking place, changes requiring, needing, demanding, that the opportunities for a fairly comfortable life on Earth be available to all, not just a few million westerners while the rest of the planet is starving.
And for that to happen, we need to break out the energy conversion technologies that have been kept super secret since funding was pulled from Nikola Tesla's work, we need to immediately reinstate hemp agriculture, we need to immediately shut down all of nuclear power which is spreading an epidemic of cancer and destroying the genome... When this green scene is ready to talk about these things, things that were starting to come to the surface when Treehugger was still independent and free, when Hugg served a purpose.
Discovery Communications did a number here... we entrusted our support in treehugger, and treehugger folded into corporate America... now commenting about the status quo as an insider. There needs to once again be something out there to shake things up, get people moving, entice, inspiring yet again a new generation of disaffected youth.
You want to be comfy? You want to lavish in a LEED certified million dollar home, driving your Hybrid Escalade with your PV cells powering your Plasma screen, and get your face on People magazine for being a green model citizen? Fine, go right ahead... You're still part of the problem.
I dream of the day when there will be a band of merry men going from one nuclear power plant to the other, shutting them ALL down, giving Union workers new jobs installing wind and solar into green neighborhoods.
Anything short of that, is arm chair lazy environmentalism stuff, count your cash, while the likes of us still struggle to work around the dead weight of your trendy procrastination!
Cheers!
Rem
THANK YOU RemyC!
We have a radical global problem stemming from the industrial complex, and we need to radically change that, and we certainly can't just just let our factories, coal plants, and nuke stations hum along while we idly change lightbulbs and lurk on the net and watch Treehugger HD from the Boobtube!
Rise and Shine folks!