Assn 2-1: Going Green and Pop Culture

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. This mantra of the 1980’s has become the beat that we march to 20 years later. Using less, recycling and integrating organic products into the lifestyle has been propagated as the way to save earth and its future inhabitants. Going green not only helps to ease this generation’s conscience but it also seems to help connect us to each other. With a media frenzy created around the subject, the newest pop culture initiative is to live “green”.
Al Gore, former vice president, is helping to lead the cause against global warming. His projects include the Climate Project with Repower America and the Alliance for Climate Protection. Among many admirable goals, he and his task force have set forth “to “repower” our country with 100% clean electricity within 10 years.” (Repower America, 2009, p. 1) In addition he tries to solicite the support of other countries and their leadership to join such initiatives.
Celebs have been more than happy to jump on the “green” bandwagon. Leonardo DiCaprio has made his voice heard for many green topics. Brad Pitt helped to rebuild a greener city, the Big Easy from the ground up. (Dunn, 2009) Most recently, Ed Norton whom has recently promoted his “Earth Hour” project in which he encourages everyone to turn off all unnecessary power for one hour, 8:30-9:30pm, on March 28th. (The Sustainability Ninja, 2009) Celebrities have brought the “green” lifestyle to the big screen and to main street, making living with less so fabulous.
My personal views on “going green” have mixed reviews. While I do believe that we should live as much of an organic, conserving lifestyle as possible, there is a point where we need to draw a line. I think that is pathetic that you can go to prison for killing a baby moose in Alaska, but our country still allows the partial birth abortions of human babies, with no consequence. Global warming is over propagated and I believe is just a cycle that Earth is going through. Basically, I believe that we should take all of the “green” ideas and concepts and apply them to our reality. Making small changes to our lifestyles can help to save the Earth for future generations.


Bibliography
Dunn, C. (2009, February 18). How to Go Green: Like Celebrities. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from Planet Green: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/celebrities/green-celebrities-tips.html
Repower America. (2009). What is Repower America? Retrieved May 24, 2009, from Repower America: http://repoweramerica.org/
The Sustainability Ninja. (2009, March 27). Switch off Saturday for Earth Hour. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from The Sustainability Ninja: http://www.sustainabilityninja.com/tag/edward-norton/