A Step in the Right Direction

Maniates brings up a great idea; let’s completely revamp the entire American way of life and make sure that everything is green and sustainable. It sounds wonderful, right? I’d be all for it. I think that we need a complete makeover, otherwise our future isn’t looking too good. I don’t personally have a financial stake in a turnaround. I plan on working in an NGO or doing translation in the future; my parents are in the medical and shipping fields. None of us have a huge stake in agriculture, production, or transportation. This is not to say that we are not affected by it. I am just simply saying that we don’t have a reason to be opposed. Other Americans, however, who receive their main financial security from these systems that pose the most threat to the environment also would be risking the most in order to create this big overhaul.
He compares the “lazy environmentalist” movement to other revolutionary ideas in the past, such as the American revolution and the civil rights movement. While none of these people went around talking about how to do nothing but still create change, these monumental changes did not happen overnight. Decades passed between the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement, women did not get the right to vote until nearly 150 years after we became an independent nation. The environmental movement arguably needs to occur faster, but at least we are starting it now. If we can get people today to start “tweaking the edges,” we will be better equipped to create the more monumental changes in the future.