[GPSCC-chat] 3D Politics - Why Dem-GOP 'Moderate' Greens Will Fail

[alexcathy at aol.com]

 Dear Green Friends, 

The New York Times is at it again.  Today they published an Op-Ed piece by Gernot Wagner grimly warning that while our "action bias" makes us feel good about "doing something" about the environment in small individual gestures, at the end of the day "the planet" will hardly notice.  I cross-posted the commentary to my blog on California Greening. Please read and leave a comment.  (C'mon, I know some of y'all believe in that "feel good" small gestures stuff.  Go ahead! Start an argument with me!) 


Alex Walker
Los Angeles Greens

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Posted on California Greening, September 8, 2011
3D Politics - Why Dem-GOP 'Moderate' Greens Will Fail
by Alex Walker 

Why register Green? Why leave the Republican and Democratic houses of our fathers? Why not nudge good Republicans and Democrats to "Go Green?" The short answer is the old parties are hung up on old debates between so-called conservatives "on the Right" and so-called liberals "on the Left." to "Go Green" for them is, at best, an afterthought pasted onto their primary one-dimensional pantomime.

See below an Op-Ed by Gernot Wagner grimly warning that while our "action bias" makes us feel good about "doing something" about the environment in small individual gestures, at the end of the day "the planet" will hardly notice.

Published in The New York Times, September 7, 2011
Going Green but Getting Nowhere
By Gernot Wagner


YOU reduce, reuse and recycle. You turn down plastic and paper. You avoid out-of-season grapes. You do all the right things.

Good.

Just know that it won’t save the tuna, protect the rain forest or stop global warming. The changes necessary are so large and profound that they are beyond the reach of individual action.

You refuse the plastic bag at the register, believing this one gesture somehow makes a difference, and then carry your takeout meal back to your car for a carbon-emitting trip home.

Say you’re willing to make real sacrifices. Sell your car. Forsake your air-conditioner in the summer, turn down the heat in the winter. Try to become no-impact man. You would, in fact, have no impact on the planet. Americans would continue to emit an average of 20 tons of carbon dioxide a year; Europeans, about 10 tons.

. . .



Read More and Leave a Comment at:
http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2011/09/3d-politics-why-dem-gop-moderate-greens.html

This article has also been cross-posted on Greenchange.org:
http://network.greenchange.org/news/39836-3d-politics-why-dem-gop-moderate-greens-will-fail





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