Normal Green: Al Gore Urges Us to Use Our Moral Imagination

This weekend my Tonic News colleague Cat Lincoln and I attended West Coast Green, the largest conference and expo on green building and innovation in the world. On the second day, Al Gore addressed the conference and gave a measured-but-inspired call-to-action urging green revolution leaders to continue blazing their earth-saving trails. The exhibitors at West Coast Green were industry leaders — pioneers in alternative energy sources, green building materials and eco-conscious design — so Gore was acknowledging their efforts and imploring them to keep innovating. "It's time to think boldly," said Gore. "(Let's) get 100 percent of our electricity from renewable sources within 10 years. We can do it!" he challenged, and he got lots of applause and a few standing ovations for suggesting it.

Until Gore's talk, I would never have thought of myself as being on the leading edge of the green revolution. I call this column "Normal Green," but that is what I think I am. I'm your normal, everyday person doing what she can, in some small part, to reduce my wear and tear on the earth. I reduce, recycle, and reuse. Pay a little more for alternative energy. Bike around my town whenever possible. I wash out plastic bags, eat and shop local, but I am far from living off the grid. Perhaps you are the same. I've never hugged a tree, can't stand the smell of patchouli, and when it rains (or some mornings when it's too cold), we drive to school rather than bike. Seventeen years ago, when I graduated from college, I was a young, idealistic Green Party member intent on changing the world. I got involved in city government, I volunteered on behalf on political candidates I supported, and I vowed to make a difference. At that time, however, I didn't really know what I wanted to change about the world, I just knew I had to do something. Fast forward to now. Since then, I've made two major career shifts, had two children, am now a progressive Democrat and in the last eight years — the years my children know as the first years of their lives — I've watched in horror as our country faced one moral, ecological and economic disaster after another. I feel the fierce urgency of now, and so do lots of other people. So how do we work together to change the world?

Gore points out that we're undergoing a powerful psychological shift, and when I think about it, that is what the "Normal Green" movement is all about. Now more than ever people are making conscious decisions to (I'm going to say it) reduce their carbon footprints. My mother, whom I could never get to recycle because it was a "hassle," now not only recycles, but chooses green light bulbs, and takes her own bags when she goes shopping. Think about all the things you are doing now that maybe you didn't do a year ago. Two years ago. Are you: biking more? Planting your own garden? Eschewing bottled water in favor of refilling your own? Are you: carpooling? Choosing greener office supplies? Passing clothes and other unwanted items on to friends? So many of us "normal" people have made huge shifts in our lifestyles to respond to the environmental crisis we are in. As a result, we are part of this green psychological shift and are creating our own paradigm shift whether we know it or not.

We are, as Gore says, using our "moral imaginations," and if we keep the momentum going, can make a profound impact on the environment. We are the ones who can never go back to how it was before. We are the ones that will push our government to seek alternative forms of renewable energy from "free" sources like air and the Sun. We are the ones who, as we build and remodel homes with an eye toward LEED principles, will drive down the costs of solar cells, tankless water heaters, and other green building supplies. Millions of people are going through a personal transformation, and as people realize the challenge ahead, they (we) will begin to see that they need to help to change the future. Gore ended his talk by stating that the next generation, our children, will ask us, "What did we do at the beginning of 21st century when we knew we were faced with an environmental crisis of disastrous proportions?" They will ask,  "Why didn't we act? Why didn't we do something?"  "I want them to ask a different question," urged Gore. "I want them to ask, 'How did you find the moral courage to act, to change the world?'" Whether we are "Normal" or "Hardcore" Green, we all need to use our moral imagination to see the future we want to create. This column is my weapon. We will have no failure of imagination here. Not if I can help it. Not if you can make small changes. Onward, together!