GREEN IS DEAD!
As a concept (or it should be).
Concepts have a tendency to kill the thing being conceptualized. What is beheld is deconstructed into categories, labeled, a way to act, a “to do” item, a thing to buy; and then an extension of our identity, and soon a good thing becomes meaningless, dead. One aspires to be greener than the Jones's who are green with envy at your “greenerestness”.
“Green” is a new concept. It means something when contrasted to oil slicks, floating fish, melting ice caps, dying species, birth defects. Pull a fish out of water and all of a sudden it knows what water is, pollute ourselves to death and now we know what “green” is, it's living in tune with nature. In many ways and for thousands of years, it was the normal way of life: we sustainably grew, harvested, preserved our food; nourished our land; built homes that were in harmony with their surroundings (albeit less comfortable than today!). We spent time with our families and were connected to our community. Then came the phenomena of Industrialization.
Industrialization can be summed up as More stuff, More faster, More cheaper. Nothing inherently wrong with More, unless it poisons us, our unborn children, kills species, reduces people to poverty or to an indentured way of life.
I don't condemn industrialization whole sale. Much good has derived from it: the spread of wealth, advanced medicine, technology that improves our lives, empowers people and democratizes our world. I wouldn't want to live in the conditions others survived in over 160 years ago. I think we can have many of the benefits we enjoy today without killing ourselves though and we can avoid its unfortunate byproducts- our disconnect from nature, and polluting the natural resources and systems we rely on to survive.
Today, the Corporation has become a modern expression of industrialization. Like people, it has much Good to offer: Invention. Efficient. Organized. Resourceful. Creative. Giving. And Bad: inclination to be exploitive, amoral, unethical, murderous. History is a dialectic between these urges.
Looking back, we know things change and it has always relied on You to make it happen. You make the difference. Green emblemizes the movement to balance the effects of irresponsible industrialization, our slow suicide. Things are changing and individuals like You are making it happen.
Feel any green pressure lately? It is Corporations' new hammer and lever to get more cooperation, more money, more faster from you. Which means: You count.
That gives you power. Exercise your natural power by making personal decisions to and beyond one's own nose. You are in your power when You are caring of yourself, your family, your community, your nation, your world (without caring for others you can't well care for yourself; excessive concern for ones self leads to exploitation of others whereby others are now inclined to exploit you and voila: here we are! Israel, Gaza, Iran, North Korea, Mugabe, Stalin).
There is a way to preserve personal power, improve y/our world and avoid becoming a mindless cog in an immensely complicated and dark machine: being Mindful. Not using something? Turn it off. Love planting and gardening? Grow something you can eat too. Bike, run or walk somewhere. Buy fair trade. Give, donate, volunteer. Little acts add up to big events.
It is by personal action that change happens and Green (which really is just caring for ourselves, others and our world) even if it becomes an empty concept, can still have power. It comes to life with mindfulness, mindful of what is done, what is said, how one spends their money (which represents time) in a way that accords with you, not a green-slick ad campaign.
Imagine a commercial by XYZ Inc. depicting the quintessential family sitting around the table laughing, sharing dinner, spreading Atrazine on their bread, mercury spritz on their salmon filet, potassium sorbate on the salad. Who would go to work to support More of this? Am I supporting something that is causing me or others harm? It's something we get to be mindful of. After all, who doesn't want a healthy home, clean food, water, and air?
The title of my article is a reference to the German philosopher Frederic Nietzsche's declaration “God is dead” (God's reported response, “Nietzsche is dead”). For green to survive, as a label, it too must die; it must be a natural choice for us to support and do things that represent our value of clean air, clean water, clean food, healthy homes. There must be a value placed on these beyond up front cost (which does not represent true cost).
I heard the following at a recent green builders' conference: One light bulb left on for 24 hrs a day, for 365 days costs about $39 (cost of bulb, electricity, driving to get it, installing it). To keep this bulb on requires more than 750 lbs of strip mined coal, which is driven to an Ohio power plant, the burning of which releases sulfuric and nitric acid into the air which returns as acid rain, which then shows up as mercury in the fish we eat. Is the true cost just $39? This is a big event, caused by a little act.
This is an exciting time, it's our time. There are troubles and challenges and things appear dire, but there are many opportunities to help improve the world we live in. The magic is that it's our little acts that will make big change. It doesn't require that we sacrifice anything; as a matter of fact there is an increase in health, comfort and financial savings. Even if we do just one thing, one thing at a time, out of the many possibilities we are making a small contribution to the world we live in.
Ben Kelley is the principal at Building Shelter Inc., Building Shelter is the premier building company of choice, creating excellent homes while caring for the earth they build from. Ben is a Certified Green Professional (CGP) by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) www.buildingshelter.com , info@buildingshelter.com , 508.693.7734
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