Shades of Green

What's Your Shade Of Green?

Interesting article at Worldchanging that argues there's really three different types of environmentalism going on: bright green, light green and dark green. Shorthand definitions:

Bright green: "any vision of sustainability which does not offer prosperity and well-being will not succeed." This reminded me of Rep. Jay Inslee's book, Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy.

"Light greens strongly advocate change at the individual level. The thinking is that if you can get people to take small, pleasant steps (by shopping differently, or making changes around the home), they will not only make changes that can begin to make a difference in aggregate, but also begin to clamor for larger transformations."

"Dark greens, in contrast, tend to emphasize the need to pull back from consumerism (sometimes even from industrialization itself) and emphasize local solutions, short supply chains and direct connection to the land."

Then there are of course the "grays" who deny there's any problem at all. Other names for this group include "browns" and "Republicans."

As a blogger, I delight in saying uncomfortable things, and my periodic rants about motor homes towing SUVs at two gallons a mile, and my belief that we can't sustain refrigerated cities in the desert complete with golf courses, you might call me a dark green. But my bike to work, grow food in the back yard lifestyle makes me a light green whenever I can. (But with kids, sometimes you land in the dark brown zone of the McDonalds drive thru.)