Change The World?

"So why are you having another Green conference?" somebody asked me a couple of weeks ago. "By this point, anybody who believes in conservation probably already knows about it, and people who don't believe in it aren't going to listen anyway. What good is hugging an bunch of trees and telling everybody else to get out there and hug one going to do?" The same person also said some much more cutting things about having the conference on the Friday before Memorial day, charging $395 per person to attend it, charging extra for the tour of Long Beach Harbor, and so on, but their basic thrust was what good is it going to do if we all get together and feel good about ourselves if the rest of the world is never going to change?

I bring this up because that question lies at the heart of the decision to have a Green conference in the first place, as well as the decision every person attending made to give up their time (and money) and go to Long Beach in the first place. After all, every year on Earth Day (and usually a few other times as well) all of the so-called "Tree Huggers" and "Greens" get together and talk about how wonderful it would be if everyone in the world was living in harmony with nature, leaving no carbon footprint and creating no waste, greenhouse gas, or any other impact in the environment, but that doesn't seem to be lowering the number of giant SUVs on the road, the number of giant "McMansions" being built, or the amount of oil, coal, gas or wood being collected and burned...

The rather sad fact is that no amount of warm, fuzzy activity is going to amount anything. We can all get together, all 6 billion plus of us, and sit in a circle and sing songs about helping the planet get healthier, and it won't make a bit of difference -- unless we actually DO SOMETHING other than sitting around and singing. Showing people how they can make more money doing something in an environmentally responsible manner; demonstrating how throwing things away costs money and wastes things you spent money on, whereas recycling things can make you money; telling people about a better way and showing them ways to be more successful by doing it -- that WILL change world for the better...

Don't get me wrong; I'm all for idealism, sincerity and commitment to the cause. It's just that I like results a whole lot more. I'm not sure what the long-term results are going to be from our day at the Westin in Long Beach; all I know is that if there is ever going to be meaningful change in our world, it will not come at the expense of the people who live here. Telling them to give up their homes, their jobs, and their way of life in order to support an abstraction like the general health of the planet really is the sort of fuzzy-headed thinking the arch-conservatives always said it was. Telling them to make more money while saving on health costs, living longer, and enjoying the world more... Yeah, that might work...

Over the next few weeks I'm going to post a few ideas that came out of the Green conference last week; ways that your company might be able to use to make more money, waste fewer resources, improve community relations, and pay fewer fines. After that, maybe we can all sit in a circle and sing for a while, if anyone still wants to...