Green: A Love Story

Dan’s note: Today we continue with a feature that we call “GreenDimes Member of the Week.” In this space, we feature thoughts and scribe from our own members — anyone who has something to share about being green or making change. This week's Member of the Week is Sophie in the Moonlight - Sophie is a big supporter of our work and our commitment to tree planting.  Here she is! By Sophie in the Moonlight - July 21, 2008 (TNN) Green has always been my favorite color, decades before politicians and corporations started changing the color of their banners and signs to create the impression that they are saving the world one font at a time, and a little while before Green became the standard bearer for a grand and grave movement for global climate change. I’ve had a life-long love affair with Green.  My childhood lovey was a 2 ft. tall bright mossy green bunny with nursery-rhyme fabric lining his ears.  Lime green was part of my tween Madonna wannabe uniform, and sea foam green stems entwine my first tattoo.  A devoted foodie, I’m enchanted with bright yellow-green chardonnay grapes, murky green capers & olives, and the vibrant green of perfectly steamed broccoli.  When my husband and I married we chose a landscape dominated by silvery-green sagebrush and interwove its color throughout our commitment.  A few years later we moved our little family into a Green certified house.  It’s yellow and blue, and yellow and blue make, well, Green. One afternoon as my son and I drove through a wildlife preserve, he asked me why I love Green so much.  I looked around at the lush summer foliage and thought of all the greens I’ve loved: mossy and murky, lime and grape, broccoli and sage, sea foam and the deep, prismatic green of the forests that embraced my Adirondack childhood.  I realized and then said, “Because Green is the color of Life.” Green is Mother Earth’s code for sustenance and viability.  Green shoots proclaim water is nearby and most likely some edible flora.  Of course, where there’s flora there’s fauna and fantastically inventive ecosystems humming along.  The photosynthesis that makes Green happen in trees and plants and algae is our reminder that we our not alone in Life.  We inhale photosynthesis’ waste, oxygen, and for most of history we balanced out our gratitude for breathing with giving the Greenery a bit of carbon dioxide to help along its photosynthesis. Unfortunately, as a race we’ve thrown the whole balance thing out the window. We’ve basically caused global warming by not only creating way too much carbon dioxide, but also by removing the biggest users of that carbon dioxide.  In the continental U.S. alone, 90% of our forests have been cleared away since European settlers first landed here.  Ninety percent.  Like Shel Siverstein’s book, The Giving Tree, we have taken and taken from the Green trees around us and used them up for writing surfaces, structures, vehicles, toys, and throwaway holiday ornaments.  In the end we’ve left nothing but stumps, and stumps are not sufficient anchors for breathtakingly diverse ecosystems and fragile microhabitats. Thankfully, re-forestation is beginning to replace de-forestation and many companies are adopting policies to plant two trees for each one cut down.  Individuals are taking up the yoke for Green’s cause and reducing, reusing, recycling, and, my favorite, becoming involved in companies like GreenDimes, Tonic Generation, and American Forests that are committed to doing their part to replant our forests and rebuild the ecosystems we have thrashed. They are companies and organizations that are trying to save the world one tree at a time.  Fonts can take care of themselves. I have loved Green for over 30 years and been Green for about 20.  My family, like yours, is very active in environmental projects, and we are trying to teach our sons to respect the Earth that holds them to her bosom.  We read Mr. Silverstein a lot. For their sake, I am trying very hard to change the story line from The Giving Tree to The Giving Me, one tree at a time. If you are a GreenDimes and/or Tonic Generation member and you have something to say (or merely have a photo of yourself wearing a Tonic tee or using our GreenDimes reusable shopping bags), please email dan@tonicgen.com.