Environmentalism Gets Cool Again

When North America discovered recycled paper, environmentalism was the only game in town. The media was obsessed with it. Companies were terrified of being labeled a polluter. It was cool to be green.

That passion never waned in Europe and in some parts of North America, but it has been substantially sidetracked  in corporate North America.

Iceland is committed to hydrogen-powered vehicles. Britain is making progress toward meeting its Kyoto targets.

In Canada, our biggest environmental hero is a prime minister who left politics 13 years ago? (Maybe not. )

The environmental revolution lost its place on the front pages to other issues.

It's still a bad business decision to be a blatant polluter, but subtle (and not-so-subtle) polluters have had it easy. SUVs should never have been allowed to thrive as a status symbol, but North Americans want security. And those SUVs can plow through a sub-compact car without slowing down. I figure the September 11 attacks added another three or four years to the popularity of SUVs. By all rational measures SUVs should have become a symbol of decadent waste much sooner for our whole society, not just the green brigades.

Dull, boring Al Gore is raising the temperature of public debate on climate change (you remember him, the nerd who thought global warming and the knowledge economy were important). He is having a renaissance as the champion of the environment.

Gore fronts a major documentary on global warming, coming to theatres in May. Wired Magazine features him. Vanity Fair publishes a Green Issue this month. Al's back.

"Today, there are dire warnings that the worst catastrophe in the history of human civilization is bearing down on us, gathering strength as it comes," he says in VF.

"We can solve this crisis," he writes. "Today, we have all the technologies we need to start the fight against global warming. We can build clean engines. We can harness the sun and wind. We can stop wasting energy."

Don't take Al's word for it. Just look at Europe to see what's possible.

Blog search on Gore and climate change, and climate change.

www.fuh2.com (more photos of H2s getting the finger)

Hummer photo by Kris Krug

Previous posts:  Bruce Sterling's Hurricane: Been There, Done That

Tags: environment, green, canada, trends, fuh2

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Comments

[Andrea Weckerle]

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. The Hummer one is probably worth two-thousand.

[Serge Cornelus]

In France and Belgium they do not just show 4x4s the finger: http://degonflees.blogspot.com/2005/10/in-france-push-comes-to-suv.html

[Spamouflage]

If you're driving an SUV, at least stick a Terra Pass on it:
http://terrapass.com/

[Eric Eggertson]

Thanks Spamouflage. The terrapass looks interesting. Sort of a personal Kyoto buy-back of greenhouse gas credits.

Serge: the birthplace of anarchy goes beyond shaming the gas guzzlers. Try that in Texas, and eight passers-by will whip out their handguns and start firing.