Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I’m going off biz topic for a second - because if we don’t have a planet it won’t do us much good to have businesses.

Michael Pollan has an excellent essay on why we should bother…with changing light bulbs…turning off our computers at night…turning the tap off while we brush our teeth…opening a window instead of cranking up the air conditioner…recycling…eating less beef…driving less…growing some of our own food…voting more. Here’s how he sums it up:

…Which brings us back to the “why bother” question and how we might better answer it. The reasons not to bother are many and compelling, at least to the cheap-energy mind. But let me offer a few admittedly tentative reasons that we might put on the other side of the scale:

If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioral change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand. (Just look at the market for hybrid cars.) Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture. Driving an S.U.V. or eating a 24-ounce steak or illuminating your McMansion like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience. Not having things might become cooler than having them. And those who did change the way they live would acquire the moral standing to demand changes in behavior from others — from other people, other corporations, even other countries.

Here’s an eminently practical suggestion from him: “For one day a week, abstain completely from economic activity: no shopping, no driving, no electronics.” Good for our world, good for our brains.

Personally, I see some reasons to hope: Wal-Mart is one of the biggest sellers of organic produce (of course, it’s problematic how much energy is used to transport all that produce). And we’ve got Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson doing “save the planet” commercials together.(Hey! I think I just saw a pig fly by!) People seem to be waking up - that regardless of what we think of global heating - that we’ve only got one globe, with finite resources.

Have a happy, thoughtful Earth Day!

More Ideas For Greener (and BETTER) living:
Ideal Bite
The Lazy Environmentalist
The Big Green Purse She’s got a lot of lists that can help (unfortunately, I can’t link directly to them.)

P.S. I’ve gotten to where I don’t like refrigerated air…too cold, too “sterile.” So, I sweat glow a little. I love fresh breezes and the sounds of summer - which you don’t get if the house is sealed.

P.P.S. I do not now or have ever owned a pair of Birkenstocks and I think deodorant is a great, good thing (see above re “glow.”)

Tags: Earth Day, global heating, global warming