Just wanted to share Al Gore’s latest vision of action for America. I’ll link you to an article from WorldChanging that reflects on his words. 

The speech below is certainly a worthwhile way to spend 30 minutes, it’s either that or another sit-com re-run. Check it out…

If you’re in a rush, here’s the short version…

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, 

While traveling in Germany and Austria during the last couple weeks, it became obvious that the culture has a lower level of stress than we do in North America, this is a generalization, but I think it holds strong. Rarely have I seen an obese European on this trip, the number of cyclist commuting and out for recreation is extraordinary, and the general pace of work and life seems to be one notch slower and thus intrinsically more satisfying. There is time to go out for a run and still spend quality time with the family; in Europe you can have your cake and eat it too! My observations seem to be supported by a recent article I read from WorldChanging on working habits. Read through and you’ll see the stats listed about European work habits and the results from that.

 

“I argued that the long hours we in the United States work — some 300 more per year than western Europeans — mean we are more likely to rely on “convenience” and disposable items, such as heavily-packaged fast foods and single-use goods. I told my audience that many people had told me they were “too pressed for time even to recycle.” Moreover, our long work hours allow us to produce and buy more and more “stuff,” resulting in a greater pressure on resources and an inevitably stream of more waste.” MORE