Tuesday Energy Blogging – No raindrop thinks it’s responsible for the flood.
Posted by: Donna
Mike Tidwell, in his provocatively titled editorial in Sunday’s WaPo, “To really save the planet, stop going green alone”, argues that individual efforts to “go green” are worse than futile:
December should be national Green-Free Month. Instead of continuing our faddish and counterproductive emphasis on small, voluntary actions, we should follow the example of Americans during past moral crises and work toward large-scale change. The country’s last real moral and social revolution was set in motion by the civil rights movement. And in the 1960s, civil rights activists didn’t ask bigoted Southern governors and sheriffs to consider “10 Ways to Go Integrated” at their convenience.
I get what he’s saying, and his exhortation to put political pressure on elected leaders to make big changes is one we should all heed. But I’m not comfortable with him waving away compact fluorescent bulbs and caulking as so much nothing, as if it’s this false dichotomy where you can only do one or the other, but not both. People can multitask, dude.
People should be encouraged to multitask where hugely important issues like the environment and civil rights are concerned. Sure, civil rights legislation passed largely because of top-down political will. But perhaps some more appealing to the hearts and minds of white Americans (not that I’m saying it was absent, just inadequate) would have neutralized the efficacy of the Southern Strategy, “white flight” from urban areas, and Reagan’s Welfare Queens, in terms of derailing Civil Rights in a real sense. Maybe “10 Ways to Go Integrated” back then would have produced fewer teabaggers now. I’m not saying we’re not making progress in race relations; just that it’s at a glacial pace (perhaps not the best metaphor considering how rapidly the icebergs are melting) and it could be a lot further along. That is, if white people felt it was important enough to us, personally, and were willing to make the necessary changes in our behavior.
Really, it’s like Tidwell telling white people, back in the early 60s, “Continue to be racist in your own interactions and life decisions, but call your Congressman to demand that he vote for the Civil Rights Act now!”
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Donna, for me the provocation was successful. I have had concerns about the “trendiness” effect on the green movement. I’ve been around a few cycles of this similar campaigns — back to the original Earth Day back in the ….ahem….70′s — as well as its subsequent permutations since then. In a perverse way, I’m bummed that gas prices have fallen (kinda) in the last year, because until issues hit folks in the wallet, they’re not like to give a damn. That’s why I enjoyed Tidwell’s approach — it just might provoke an emotional response among folks who have already numbed themselves to the issue.
In a perverse way, I’m bummed that gas prices have fallen (kinda) in the last year, because until issues hit folks in the wallet, they’re not like to give a damn
Unfortunately , I must agree. When gas was aroud $4.00 a gallon, seems like everyone was bailing with the gas hogs. Now the SUVS try to cut me off every chance they get..
As far as the white flight goes, best remember whites will be in the minority in the not too distant future.
White fright?
Well, he does have a point.
We put EDTA in the gas to cut down on harmful emissions and then found out that the EDTA was poisoning the groundwater.
On a lighter note, take a look at Jason Rose’s twitter today:
http://twitter.com/jasonrosepr/status/6310973736
Is he suggesting that Tom Horne may be engaging in (ahem) extracurricular activity? I love it when Republicans smear each other that way (hat tip to zelph at AZNetroots.)