Not that kind of change.
The press release for National Geographic's new Green Guide magazine got me thinking. (And, by the way, it's an e-mailed press release. No trees were harmed in the making of this blog.) The lead of the release reads: "As the nation's green wave shifts from environmental advocacy to responsible consumerism ..."
Simple, right? Actually, it made me say, "Whoa," Keanu Reeves-style.
That's exactly what's happening.
Like you, my husband and I have noticed that green is gold right now. Green TV, green companies, green everything. Put "green" in the title of your new book and it'll be a bestseller.
We're worried, frankly, that it's a trend. Maybe "green" is the Macarena of 2008. Maybe next year, it'll be the next hip thing.
But maybe this isn't about trend. Maybe this is about the wave of the movement.
Feminism had what sociologists refer to as waves. First wave involved fighting the laws the kept women as, at best, second class citizens. It was a war against the government, to put it simply. The second wave was still fighting for equality, but fighting the injustices that weren't about laws. These feminists fought for jobs they were blocked from, fought to go to schools that weren't really open to them. The third wave, started in the '90s, was more about gender roles and sexuality and ... well, a lot of theories.
Were they all feminism? Yes. They just had different routes to the same goal.
Maybe environmentalism is the same thing.
In the '70s, it seems like people who were environmentalists were chaining themselves to trees when lumberjacks showed up or waving signs in front of factories. It was "environmental advocacy," like the release says. It had very little to do with you or me. It was about factories and big business.
But now, green is personal. It's about consumers and what we consume, not producers and what they produce. Ultimately, they'll produce what we consume. That's how we vote with our dollars. If we consume wisely, we'll help our health, help our wallets, help the planet and help business see that green production will earn them more green.
Not a bad revelation for the first sentence of a press release.