Bright Green

As a fan of WIE (What is Enlightenment Magazine) and of WorldChanging, the following article that I first read in the hard copy of WIE that comes to my door, and re-read this morning on the ‘puter, follows many of the conclusions that much of my varied reading topics has lead me to come to. ‘A Brighter Shade of Green’ by Ross Robertson is worthy of a full read, and hope it is just a spark for you to do further personal research on what it all means. 

I like their term ‘bright green’, it sits quite well with me; it represents the new school environmentalists, as hinted at by Bruce Sterling in this quote from the article:

“It’s a question of tactics. Civil society does not respond at all well to moralistic scolding. There are small minority groups here and there who are perfectly aware that it is immoral to harm the lives of coming generations by massive consumption now: deep Greens, Amish, people practicing voluntary simplicity, Gandhian ashrams and so forth. These public-spirited voluntarists are not the problem. But they’re not the solution either, because most human beings won’t volunteer to live like they do. . . . However, contemporary civil society can be led anywhere that looks attractive, glamorous and seductive. The task at hand is therefore basically an act of social engineering. Society must become Green, and it must be a variety of Green that society will eagerly consume. What is required is not a natural Green, or a spiritual Green, or a primitivist Green, or a blood-and-soil romantic Green. These flavors of Green have been tried and have proven to have insufficient appeal. . . . The world needs a new, unnatural, seductive, mediated, glamorous Green. A Viridian Green, if you will.”

So gone are the days of the dark green neighborhood recycling nazi, lets welcome a brighter future, one not based on fear and guilt, but one built by first looking deep within, and then bravely creating an optimistic worldview, and pursuing a sacred activism that utilizes the brilliance of a science steeped in integrity,