6/4: Recently, we've been noticing that we've been focusing mainly on grassroots actions. I've started to think about the green movement in terms of accessability, that is, things that normal people can take part in themselves. I think that if we approach sustainability from this angle, it would be much easier to take the consumerist "greenwashing" aspect out of it, and focus on actually improving our society.

3/25: To me, “Green” is a pathway, a sort of waypoint on the road to sustainability. I remember learning in health class about the difference between health and wellness; “health” measures your condition against a theoretical optimum, while “wellness” measures your condition against your personal peak fitness. Much as someone with diabetes cannot be perfectly healthy but can have a high degree of wellness, we might not be able to achieve full sustainability in our lifetime, but can live with a high degree of greenness.

That said, I don’t think of sustainability as merely solar panels, sustainable farming practices and the like, but as a whole system that allows our culture to perpetuate itself. Over the long run, we’ll have to question every facet of our society, from education and waste disposal to work schedules and the provision of food. This is not to say that we have to get rid of everything, only that we have to become aware of what we do and how it effects us and the rest of the world.

It makes me happy to see that the green movement has caught on in recent years. However, I am somewhat disappointed at its focus. So much energy is put into getting the upper middle class to buy “green goods” that people are ignoring the rest of society. While this market definitely encourages research into more sustainable technologies, we seem to be losing sight of the big picture. If we do not make sustainability achievable by all of society, we won’t change anything other than the worth of a few stocks.

Western society has battled with issues of sustainability for millennia. Since the first agricultural revolution (and probably even earlier), we have had population spikes every time we figured out how to create more surplus. Much as can be seen in the population curves of wild animals, we end up taxing our resources and regressing slightly. It has never meant the end of civilization, and each time has in fact brought us to a slightly higher stable population.

In the end of the 20th century, people began theorizing that we were caught in an infinite positive feedback loop (constantly accelerating population growth) due to the use of fossil fuels. They surmised that we would destroy the planet and cause the end of not only our species, but nearly all others. I don’t believe this to be the case. If we recognize that the current trend is just a longer population curve than most (which probably means a larger drop at the end), we can take steps to create a sustainable society before we hit our peak, thus allowing a smooth transition to our next stable state.

If we move quickly but softly, if we take both personal and societal measures to decrease our waste and consumption, we will look to a brighter future for ourselves and our children. And though we may not be able to reach full sustainability for generations, every step we take will be an improvement.

Green stands for freshness, prosperity, health and photosynthesis. I guess it also stands for envy, but Wikipedia doesn’t really give me a reason why, so we can just ignore that for now. Green is not just solar panels and hand-cranked flashlights. It’s a healthy alternative to the mainstream way of life that we’ve adopted over time.

Green is broad and rolling. It encompasses many things and waits for no one. Green is not a fad or a trend. It is something that’s been happening a long time, we just lost it for a while and now we’re getting back to it. It is unfortunate that it has become a battleground instead of a nostalgic reimagining of how things could and can be. Now it is an imaginary line drawn, a boundary where liberals, “hippies”, and democrats protest and idealize on the left, while conservatives, “rednecks” and republicans scoff and criticize on the right. But that’s a load of bull. These armies are fabricated and the battle is not between two groups of people. It is between the individual and the challenge of choice. Green is accessible to everyone and represents the possibilities of our planet, of our human race. Green is taking care of ourselves and each other. Green is a friendly smile, an act of sharing, an extra inch of effort. Green is a simple tool, a foundation for a healthy and prosperous way of life. I guess it depends on what your definition of prosperous is, but in the end if you’ve got its back, green’s got yours.

Green is here to stay, because it was here to begin with. Deal.

Also, John’s eyes are green, which just makes it even better.