Skepticism and Resistance to Living Green

This blog is about "Living to think green, a skeptic's journey".


    Definition of "Skepticism"

    (a) an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object;


I've been very curious about how to lower my skepticism and resistance to living green. Living green means taking the time to appreciate our planet and understand how we can make our personal green contribution to this beautiful place called earth. I'm almost blown away as I just typed those emphatic feelings that are now my reality.  I believe my intentions to be available for any sign I can find that will direct me to do the right green things are showing up in spades.

I've set intentions to:

1. Attract others who have a sense of urgency to live green and sincerely care about taking action.

2. Monitor my Greendar, my version of radar, to catch news that might help YOU, feel empowered to take green baby steps.

3. Lower my resistance. In other words, don't judge a movie by its book.

For example, anytime in the past when I would see a politician talking green, I would shut it down. Not interested. Today, I was viewing the New York Times and ran into the "Clinton Climate Initiative".

First response, "Oh God, BORING!". After all, we're talking about a former President doing the humanitarian post -presidential pattern of saving the world. My mindset shifted when I really stopped to watch and hear our Mr. Clinton share statistics of what trouble we're in and how fast we need to move to make life promising for many generations to come.

I'm not really interested in being a bystander to the green movement.

In other words, I will never view a green video the same again. When I clicked a green YouTube video, I seriously was thinking, "not a video on state-of-the-art energy-efficiency building technology, like super-insulation, high-performance glass and natural ventilation systems".

Seriously, I really think most of us, maybe not you, but most of us turn a deaf ear to what's happening all over the world when a philanthropic message passes our eyeballs. What does it matter to me anyway, right? How can I make an impact? If we maintain an attitude of skepticism and negativity anytime we hear green reality, we're bound to remain skeptical. You see, this really is a mindset shift, a process that can open your heart and help us all find a way to take action. People tend to take action when they feel invested, or when they can get something in return. Here's the return:

Mr. Clinton pointed out:


    "By taking an integrated approach to solving both urbanization and climate change the solutions we create will drive innovation and transform our cities."


In the video, Mr. Clinton speaks about his new program. What is this new program?

It will help support 16 large-scale urban re-development projects on six continents, including the London Development Agency's $2.4 billion Elephant & Castle regeneration and San Francisco's long-standing plan to put thousands of new housing units on the decommissioned naval base on Treasure Island.


    He said "It's one thing to put up a LEED-certified building, but quite another to develop an entire urban community with enough energy-efficient bells and whistles that its on-site emissions are actually less than zero."


When he replicates this winning green formula, many more communities will see....

* High rise buildings that create more clean energy than they use

* Waste that heats our homes instead of polluting our land

* Water treatment systems that don't waste a drop

We're talking about

* Designing ultra high performance green buildings

* Turning garbage and sewage into heat and power

* Eliminating methane from landfills on site

* Reusing grey water

* Prioritizing low impact transportation such as walking, biking and public systems

Urgency is always a good motivator. Not a moment to waste in our race against global climate change and there's no better time to act than now.