subject: 10 Ways In Coping With Our Green Generation [print this page] 10 Ways of coping in our green generation
You are involved whethere you like it or not. The majority of those aged 45, who may not believe in climate change, the younger who have accepted it like a new religion, or the skeptics who have been researching the CRU E-mail cover-up, we are all going to feel the effects of climate change.
Our green generation has ignited a light under our governments to force them to act, to impose heavy carbon emission reductions and to implement a cap-and-trade system which will essentially create a new world financial market based on carbon credits. This will have far reaching impact as every single industry in the world will need to comply and create a new expenditure, thus increasing our costs. It's clever not to adopt a carbon tax system as the World's citizens despise the idea of an other tax.
With global industries adapting, citizens of the world will also be required to adapt to new infrastructure changes, and building codes to adapt to. Your old drafty home, will be required to be upgraded to meet a new green generations requirements. Energy consumption, carbon footprints, and waste, will all be at the forefront of our minds. That being said, we will need to learn how to consume less, and we'll be forced to buy more, simply in a different way. Below, are 10 ways in coping with our new light green generation, and not spending all our money in doing so.
1) Green Lighting.
You may have heard of Earth Hour, where for one hour, all over the World, citizens and government alike turn off their lights and electronics for one hour. If you've ever taken part in this with your family, or younger children, you'll find it's actually quite an enjoyable experience. Spending time together in a different environment of sorts.
To help save energy, you can always change to energy efficient light bulbs, but why not learn the art of candle making? There are plent of great books, guides, and kits available on the internet. It's an excellent way to spend time with the family, it's entirely green, and it doesn't cost a whole lot. Plus, if there aren't kids around, candles are very romantic :)
2) Green Transport
Instead of relying on your car or public transit, ethenol, or gasoline, try using your legs a little! Walk! Ride a bike! You can now find bicycles that have batteries included so that you can bike further, with less effort if you're a little lazy. It's great exercise, and again, great time with the family getting active.
3) Energy Efficient Homes
You can turn down the heat a little for one. Wear some more clothes indoor in the winter, or less in the summer. You can turn off your tv and computer once and a while. All of this can help reduce your electric bill. If you want to be even more adventurous, you can take a shot at building your own solar panels or wind mills. It might cost a few dollar, but in the end, you'll know how to build them, your home will be greener, and you don't need to rely on someone else for them.
4) Green Generation Knowledge
The Green Generation is learning more and more on how to consume less, re-use more, and be more efficient. To get to this point, we all need to learn more, and understand more. The reason why we have arrived at this point, is from knowledge and understanding. There is a slight problem though. Some of the knowledge we learn, we learn it from perhaps unreliable sources. An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary by Al Gore, has been seen around the world, is now in our schools, and it has helped spark this Green Generation.
While our students and familys have learned much from this film, there has been growing debate amongst the scientific community regarding the so called facts in the film. Considering that this film has eventually led us to the soon to arrive cap-and-trade system, we need to understand that their may have been bigger motives at stake. We must learn about the consequences of these motives, while still maintaining an understanding of the World at large.
5) Green Generation Thought
With knowledge, comes thought. You cannot simply learn something. You must learn it, and think about it, in order to fully understand it. A great factor of this light green generation, is that it's allowing us to think about how much we consume. Today, in the United States, is Black Friday. With the 'financial crisis' more than a year past, and the blame laid on the average American spending more than they could manage, there are still mass line-ups at retail stores across the country. Obviously, we are still not learning the consequences of mass-consumerism. This is where thought comes in. Will we begin to think about why we consume so much, and why we need the lastest clothes, gadgets, and toys? Is it really that necessary, and does it really lead to that much happyness? Furthermore, how can we demand our governments to adopt to climate change targets, when we endlessly consume products that lead to supposed climate change? We must rethink how and why we buy. This is the light of the green generation.
6) Love your water
The Green Generation must truly learn to love it's water. The water we drink, with our plastic bottles and all, will soon become yet another commodity to be traded amongst the world financeers, the same financeers who have been treating our World's land, citizens, and environment, with utter lack of respect. We have been, and this will increase even more intensly, giving our Country's water to private corporations who will profit from it, at our cost. This has been happening all over the world. While the multi-national has been laughing at the money they make, the citizens of these same areas, are weeping over the cost of water, the cleanliness of it, and the scarcity of it. As time moves on, the bodies of water around you, could soon be owned and controlled by private interests. As a member of our green generation, we must prevent this. We must ensure that water is seen as a basic human right, and we must never allow multi-national corporations to own our water. Next will be the air you breath, and that probably will not be far off either.
7) Love your food
If you don't love your food, you don't care what it is. When you truly love your food, you'll care for it. You'll care what you eat, and you'll love creating it yourself. Canned and frozen meals are not healthy, and they aren't green. The Green Generation needs to have a complete shift on beliefs of food. We must care where it comes from, and how it's made. Is it being made ethically? A growing question to ask in the future is, is it genetically modified? Genetically modified seeds are being spread across the World like a disease. Not surprisingly, these seeds are fully owned, not by the farmer, but by massive companies like Monsanto. While we may go out, and buy a sofa made of soy beans, those same soy beans may have helped destroy acres and acres of farm land. Farmers who once lived fruitful lives, now may live in misery as everything they own, now belongs to Monsanto. A great film for the green generation to see: The World According to Monsanto.
8) Love your neighbour
If you haven't noticed yet, love is a major factor in coping with the green generation. If we are all going to be living, and paying, green, we need to believe in love. If you're going to accept a green cap-and-trade system, for the love of Earth, why not accept and love your neighbour for the love of the people of Earth. Wars and destruction, apartheid and financial forms of slavery, must come to an end. Just like the people have demanded their Governments to act on climate change, we must demand our Governments to end destruction and death if we are going to accept and love a new green order.
9) Contribute
There are plenty of e-zines, blogs, and websites that you can contribute and help spread the light green generation message. The light green generation is one with the green movement in mind, but who thinks in a broader aspect. While he might turn off the lights in his home, he turns on a light in his mind, and in his heart.
10) Enjoy
Climate change is turning more and more in to a boogie man each day. Feature films, television shows, and political speeches are all turning climate change in to a fear, and it's forcing us to act irrationally. Climate change will occur, because climate will always change. Just as the earth, it's people, and our environment, changes quickly. In order to adapt to change, we must understand change. We must flow with the change, not be flung in to it.
The Green Generation certainly has merit, and will be integral in creating a new green future for us all and our children. Regardless of the science available, and the science is debatable, we've forced our Governments to action, and it's doubtful there is any turning back. The internet is giving us more and more information about the possibility that climate change may indeed be false. Unfortunately, the change is going to take place. Being part of a light green generation, would hopefully allow us to take part in the change in a more peaceful, and enjoyable way. We simply must start to care, learn, and understand.
