Sustainable practices and earth friendly living are obviously gaining steam these days. From the hoards of “green” products being released daily to recycling initiatives, people are coming around to the idea that how they live has an impact on the health and well-being of the planet. But realistically, the movement is still in it’s formative stages. As a whole, societies have not turned into tree huggers en-masse. Beyond buying some fluorescent light bulbs and bamboo sheets, there’s still a lot of work to be done to promote better, more sustainable living practices.
How then, should people and groups promoting this agenda sell these ideas to the public? In a recent article, More Intelligent Life magazine suggests creating a new model of a better future, rather than using the negative possibilities to motivate individual action.
They explain:
It seems obvious what to do. Drop “environment” and “sustainability” (dull and opaque as they are) and the prefix “eco” and the self-important references to “saving the planet”. And drop the cornering tone of voice too. Talk instead about “beauty”, “health”, “wealth”, “happiness”, “leisure”, “travel”, “friends”, “fun”, “sport”,“individuality”, “imagination”, “sex” and “self-esteem”. Since climate change is driven by per-head consumption, the way to mitigate it is simply to reimagine each of those values in ways that don’t depend on buying too much stuff. In short, choose your favourite colour—and then make it green.
More Intelligent LIfe: “Going Green: Making Climate Change Hot”
[via The NYT Ideas Blog]
[image by carbonNYC]
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