Time to Rethink the New Green Era

I don’t think we are going to be here on this planet much longer. It’s only been 100 years since the industrial revolution and look at how much we have obliterated and savagely consumed. We are way in over our heads, and the way the world’s countries are being led, I see no hope for our future as a species.

We (generally speaking of the American kind since we are the leading nation as of now) are far too greedy, far too selfish, far too self-involved, and far too wrapped up in our Judeo-Christian ideological justifications to make any real change. Our president doesn’t give a shit about the environment because of ties to corporate oil and the fact that some invisible man in the sky has told him the earth is here for him to use-and after all, this Earth is only transitory, for his real life will start after death, in a completely sustainable, green, and un-polluted paradise.

So what’s the point of any of it? Well, for one thing we are killing ourselves by our own technology, science, and brain-power. Cancer is an example. So are the diseases and sicknesses we self-induce from our own food. And these things can’t be stopped by individuals. In a post- Inconvenient Truth green era, the ideology seems to be one of individual concern: if we all just did our part, if we all just stopped using plastic bags and rode our bikes more things would get better! I don’t think this is the solution. What is the point of these isolated instances of individuals all across the country when the corporation next door is allowed unrestricted pollution without consequence all under the guise that they are earning money for their shareowners-this is completely unbalanced. Individualism doesn’t work! To solve this problem we must start from the top down. We need leadership in our government, we need state legislature to pass green laws, we need to start holding corporations accountable, and we need established green practices within cities so that individuals have the support and access to live a green life.

We must stop looking down on individuals for not living a “green” lifestyle and instead start holding our government accountable. All people may not have access, money, time, energy, or knowledge to live a sustainable life-that is what government is for. Our government must set up the framework for its citizens to start living sustainably-we cannot do it by ourselves. The “American individual” persona must be retired; it does not work in this new era of global warming and pollution. Our future depends on it. Perhaps it is possible for us to lower our C02 levels and start living sustainably, but some higher ranking action needs to occur. We cannot count on technology to save us. We cannot count on science to save us. And we cannot count on those environmentalists and their bike-riding ways to save us either. Passing on the plastic bag is simply not enough.