All Clear on the Green Front: The Challenges that Lay Ahead

This week I explored the Blogosphere in order to find articles that would contribute to The Green Solution. Due to my extremely optimistic approach to green issues I used inspiration from a conversation I had last Thursday with a very knowledgeable ‘grounded environmentalists,’ for this weeks post. I decided to take a different approach while searching the blogosphere, finding something I don’t like about the ‘green’ movement. It was a difficult thing for me to do, but I resisted relapsing back to showering the blogger with well worded optimism and ego boosting compliments.

This week I commented on two posts. One from the blog iVillage – Beehive: The Buzz of the Day and one from the Green section of The Huffington Post. The Beehive: The Buzz of the Day highlighted NBC’s Universal Green Initiative’s ‘Green Week,’ and The Huffington Post blog analyzed many of the issues President-elect Barack Obama is being pressured on. The articles are different but the problems are the same, the ‘green’ movements inability to unite and be a stable reliable industry that will serve the public for many years to come.

Comment:

NBC Universal’s Green Initiative and iVillage, Beehive: The Buzz of the Day, are hosting ‘Green Week’ during this week of November 17th. Articles on topics such as going green, buying organic and eco-friendly living headline the website. However this ‘green’ week should have more substance than a ‘Green Kitchen’ page, which enlightens its readers on how to buy local produce.

I would like to preface my next few thought by saying that I am a huge proponent for all things green appreciate all forms of environmentally conscious action.

Although my tendencies are usually ones that are very optimistic when it comes to anything ‘green,’ I find it very troublesome that the ‘green’ sector is extremely unorganized and there is little structure when it comes to getting things done. What spawned my sentiment towards green week, was after searching the term ‘Green Week’ in google, I did not find two organizations/companies who had used the same dates for ‘Green Week.’ In a time when the United States of America has united to elect Barack Obama into the White House, many of his biggest supporters, in the environmental sector, are battling each other. Environmentalist have a huge opportunity to make a break through in green technology and sustainable practices, but what might be the biggest and most crucial of all opportunities is the opportunity to capture the American public. Environmentalist will always be fighting for the environment, and there is a group of people that will never care about the environment. Whether it is the speculation that the ‘green’ economy will save the American economy or the average American has been privy to the slight changes in the environment over recent years, America is ready to give ‘green’ a chance even given the feeble reputation ‘green’ has had since its conception. So as a group, I challenge us, all Americans, to unite, communicate and work together towards the breakthroughs of the future.


Comment:

With the George Bush’s tenure in the White House coming to an end this January, many of Americans are looking forward to the policies President-elect Barack Obama will bring to America. Obama is in the process of putting together an all-star bipartisan cabinet that will tackle the tough issues that face the United States of America. However people and groups are setting themselves up for disappointment by demanding and expecting certain policies and executive orders to be carried out.

The Obama campaign was meticulous in all of its actions over the past two years and ran a flawless, and successful, presidential campaign. Even today Obama’s transition team is doing its due diligence on every candidate mentioned for cabinet positions, making sure the new cabinet is best suited for America. With the expectations of a wide range of environmental policies, bills and executive orders that democrats are hoping to get passed immediately, many environmentalist will be disappointed come inauguration day. The recent actions and characteristics of the Obama team should give light to the upcoming actions they will take once in office. Deviating from their current actions would be a disservice to the American people and devastating for the green movement.

Although this is a very exciting time for many environmentalists and democrats, pressuring the Obama presidency to address the myriad of environmental problems would result in failed policies. The detrimental effects of failed policies could be crippling to the green movement. We stand at a major crossroads as a country, and we as Americans have the opportunity to unite and progress this country for the better. However we need to make sure that the changes that are made are changes that will work for America.