WiserEarth Area of Focus Stewards

 

In this blog post Joel Makower points out four reasons why Americans have not gone green (as of 2006, when the entry was written). In summary:

 

• Environmentalists have a marketing problem. It is hard to get your message across when you cannot represent your ideas in a concise enough format to fit in the average attention span of the American mind.
  
• The YOYO mentality (you're on your own) is very strong in the USA. The good news is it has been weakend while WITT thinking (we're in this together) is gaining acceptance. This is partially because climate change, no matter how you see the world, puts us all in the same boat.
  
• Environmental issues are complex: if i can't understand it or I don't know what to believe, I won't bother with it. We need to show how problems can be addressed through simple, incremental changes in behavior.
  
• Pocket environmentalism is powerful, but many Americans prefer instant over delayed gratification. While this might be more exarcebated in American culture, it a nearly universal trait of human nature. It is hard to convince consumers to choose the green option when it costs more "only" because it will add less a landfill they will never see.

The only solution presented in the article on how to make Americans greener is a familiar one, and also the reason why this article is a good fit for this group: we can only create change thru simple, incremental changes in behavior: Every Bit Counts.