Do you find when talking to people about green stuff there somehow always involves an environmental rant?
I find that either 1, people will avoid talking about green stuff altogether, or 2, the conversation will start innocently and end up with a 10-20min rant about what I do, what everyone else doesn't do, what I should be doing, what you should be doing, and why don't they do something!
In talking to people about green stuff I find it so hard to detach the "green" from the "guilt".
You can notice this for yourself. The next time you read/watch/listen to a green article, take a moment to pause and observe your thinking. I am willing to bet that there is some element of either you feeling guilty or you mentally guilting someone else in that thought. It just happens, automatically.
You can try it right now. Notice how you feel when you answer the following questions to yourself:
Do you recycle paper? How about that envelope from the bank with the plastic window in it showing your name and address? Did you recycle that? Should that go into recycling? Can the plastic window be recycled? What about those sticky notes, do you recycle those? Did you know over half the worlds population doesn't use toilet paper? Do you even need to be using that paper anyway?
Now pause. Honestly ask yourself, "how do I feel right now?" (you can read the questions again if you want).
If you can admit to feeling uncomfortable, a little unsure about your paper habits, then you are feeling what I am talking about. That was a little practice of awareness of green-guilt. Once you become aware of it, its really amazing how often it happens.
Why does green so often come with its healthy dose of guilt? That is a deep topic, future blog posts will likely go into it. You can get an introduction to why on the Earth & Me website "Why?" page (www.EarthandMe.ca/why.htm).
The fact is that so much of our environmental education up to now has coupled the "green" with the "guilt". We are so used to it that most of us don't even realize it is happening. We just naturally associate the guilty feeling as coming along with talking about green stuff, just like fries come with a burger.
It is the intention of this blog, and the Earth & Me, to help de-couple the burger from the fries, the green from the guilt. We aim to help move environmental education and habits from the guilty and deflating realm, to the realm of Respect, Understanding, and Awareness for ourselves, for others, and for the earth. There will be good content to help teachers in the classroom, green conscious folks, and anyone else wanting to move green culture forward to creating real and profound change on this earth.
Wishing you the best,
Jordan Grose
Founder of Earth & Me
