opinion: Selling the Revolution

by Matt DeNoto

If you’re reading this, I assume you’re sympathetic to the cause. Or you’re my mom. (Hi Mom!) You already understand that human actions are having effects on the planet’s climate. You know that we have been living in a wasteful, inconsiderate, destructive population for years now. You have seen that too often, money has taken precedence over responsibility. In other words, I’m mostly preaching to the converted here.

But how do we reach out to those who do not understand? How do we explain things in such a way that they become excited about getting involved in all the changes that will soon be taking place?

The first step of course is to consider their point of view. I’m going to overgeneralize here, so take it all with a grain of salt, but I think in many cases people hear about ‘saving the environment’ and they get the impression that we want to take away their cars, stop them from eating their favorite foods, and make them join hands around a campfire while singing ‘Kumbaya.’ And it scares them. They think we want to take away the things that make them happy, the things that make their lives easy. They have the mistaken impression that we won’t be happy until everybody is living in a hut with a dirt floor, wiping our butts with leaves.

The very simple idea that we should try and get across is that the Green Revolution is all about making their lives better.

For example, buying food and products generated locally not only cuts down on pollution (because if it’s made locally, it didn’t have to be shipped there by a giant, exhaust-spewing truck), it also keeps money in the community, as opposed to having it shipped off to some corporate headquarters. Plus the fewer trucks on the road, the less traffic you have to contend with.

An even more cut-and-dry example is this: If you live in an area that gets a lot of sun and were to install solar panels on your roof, not only would you get free electricity for your own home, you’d actually feed any extra power your panels generate back into the system, for which the power company PAYS YOU.

Another thing to remind them of is that they are already part of it. Over the last twenty years, refrigerators have done the same job using less than half the electricity. And the less energy their refrigerators use, the lower their energy bills are. The revolution has already been improving their lives without them even noticing.

I know thinking about it this way may upset some of those who think that more drastic, immediate change is necessary. People who think we have to stop producing harmful chemicals NOW and stop living off of fossil fuels NOW. I’m sympathetic to those points of view, but trying to shove ideas down the throats of people who can’t even bring themselves to use CFLs will simply engender more defensive suspicion and bitterness. By introducing small, demonstrable benefits to the masses it will be easier to help them start thinking more about the consequences of their actions and choices.

The more of us that care, the faster the revolution can go.