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This Month's Column: Greening Our Money

		THIS COLUMN HAS BEEN CUSTOMIZED FOR TWO PERIODICALS. Click on your desired version or just scroll down:
		* HopeDance (serving southern California - SLO, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties). Published January 2009. * West County Gazette (serving northern California's Sonoma County). Published December 2008.

ASK ECOGIRL'S HOME PAGE. Click here for more information about the column, including how she can appear in your publication.

Greening Our Money?

Published in HopeDance
September 2008
(c) Patricia Dines, 2008. All rights reserved.

 

Dear EcoGirl: I'm anxious about the economy, with rising prices for gas, food, health care, and more. How can we worry about the environment, even global climate change, when real survival issues are at stake? Signed, Troubled in Santa Maria

 

Dear Troubled: Yes, our current economic issues can seem daunting, and it's reasonable to take care of our well-being.

 

However, it's also vital for us to remember that both our economic and physical survival depend first upon a functioning planet. When our actions damage nature's ecosystems, we're also harming our own financial and physical well-being.

 

Thus, when fisheries collapse, so do fishermen's livelihoods; mass bee dieoffs risk our food supply; increasingly-severe weather events create a previously-unimaginable scale of destruction; our ravenous hunger for limited oil amplifies its cost; and pollution generates widespread death and disease.

 

As a beekeeper once said to me, "If you want expensive food, try having no bees."

 

The earth's physical limits are real. The question is not whether our culture's relationship with the earth will change but how that change will occur.

 

If we stay on our current path, we'll likely experience escalating and increasingly-irreversible global crises that will force many adjustments upon us.

 

We do have another choice, though: to proactively choose a constructive transition to a more earth-aligned economy and culture. We can help create this positive outcome, by recognizing the urgency and acting intelligently.

 

The future that we and coming generations will inhabit depends on what we all do now.

 

How You Can Nurture This Eco-Transition

 

1) Understand what "green" really means. Green is used so casually nowadays that the truly meaningful actions can be unclear.

 

So educate yourself about the key eco-issues and solutions, to contribute to wise approaches and avoid harmful ones. Deepen your understanding by reading non-mainstream sources (such as this paper!) and hearing different perspectives. Be open to constructive solutions, but cautious about easy answers and smooth-talking façades. The rush to corn ethanol, and backlash over its full costs, should warn us about embracing ideas too uncritically.

 

2) Buy green wisely. Green your home and business purchases by first considering if you can reach your goals without buying something new. Can you reuse or buy used instead? Can you replace disposable products like paper towels with reusable ones like cloth? Only by reducing our consumption notably can we dial back our destruction of the earth.

 

When buying products, look beyond "green" labels to understand their claims. (Useful information is at <www.greenerchoices.org/eco-labels>.) Invest in the key solutions, such as conservation, alternative energy, local organic agriculture, and home gardening. What we buy is what we encourage.

 

3) Green your work. As more people support green solutions, more earth-healing jobs are appearing. For leads, see my page <www.healthyworld.org/jobs.html>.

 

But you don't have to change your job. Explore how you can green your organization's current activities. Get ideas from periodicals and peers. Read Natural Capitalism <www.natcap.org>.

 

4) Green your finances. Even your banking and investments can flow money towards more earth-healthy activities. See <www.greenpages.org> for green bank accounts, credit cards, advisors, periodicals, and more.

 

5) Save money in ways that nurture the planet and your life. For example, carpooling saves money and energy while connecting you with others. Being in nature costs little and brings a centeredness no product ever will.

 

6) Help change our economic system. The true solution is changing the playing field, shifting what our economic system rewards so that people's financial well-being aligns with the earth's. Unfortunately, many leaders and businesses are still following outdated economic models. Therefore, it's up to us, the many, to reclaim our power and act for a smarter economy. I encourage you to explore the various remedies being suggested, identify ideas and groups you value, pressure lawmakers, and educate others.

 

For more information, see Ecology of Commerce and Deep Economy, two books which propose key principles for our system's redesign. Check out <www.apolloalliance.org> and <www.capanddividend.org> for two examples of win-win approaches. Also search online for "green economics," "green taxes," and "genuine progress indicator," to see the many wonderful options being suggested.

 

7) Unblock your barriers to action. Action is the antidote to despair! Do you wish you were doing more? Explore what you most want to impact, your barriers to acting, and ways to unblock them. Do you feel too busy? Look for solutions that save time or fit into your current activities. Do you think one can't make a difference? Then consider the harm that our cumulative actions already cause. Or perhaps you haven't found the solutions you seek? Then create them to serve yourself and others!

 

Yes, looking at these issues can be challenging, but ignoring them only makes them worse. By facing both the dark and the light, the problems and the many solutions just waiting for our support, we can avert catastrophe and co-create a culture that nurtures both people and the planet.

 

Ask EcoGirl is written by Patricia Dines, Author of The Organic Guides, and Editor and Lead Writer for The Next STEP newsletter. Email your questions to <EcoGirl@AskEcoGirl.info> for possible inclusion in future columns. View past columns at <www.AskEcoGirl.info>. Also contact EcoGirl for information about carrying this column in your periodical. "EcoGirl believes that everyone can be a superhero for the planet. Then she shows you how!"

 

© Copyright Patricia Dines, 2008. All rights reserved.

 

Note: For this periodical, this was done as a 2-column series, with this as the second followup portion.

PDF VERSION -- formatted with the EcoGirl logo and ready to print! (Click here to download a PDF reader.)

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Greening Our Money?

Published in the West County Gazette
July 2008
(c) Patricia Dines, 2008. All rights reserved.

Dear EcoGirl: In last month's column, you said that our current economic woes make it increasingly urgent that we shift to more earth-honoring ways, because our economy depends on functioning ecosystems. But how can we do that when everyone's budgets are so challenged? Signed, Seeking in Sebastopol

Dear Seeking: Yes, I think a key task of our times is resolving the tension between our current financial and environmental worldviews.

On the one hand, it's reasonable that we seek money to support our daily lives. However, the economic system that generates our lovely material things also rewards the wide-scale environmental destruction that undermines both our physical and financial well-being.

Unfortunately, if we allow our activities to continue ignoring our dependency on the earth, we will increasingly find ourselves and the planet in ruins. (Read Collapse to learn how other societies failed this way, and <www.worldwatch.org/node/1606> for more about our economy's reliance on nature.)

Thus, true healing of both our economic and ecological crises requires that we increasingly use our money to encourage activities that honor and align with the earth's ways and our true best interests. Our choices will create our future world.

How You Can Nurture This Eco-Transition

1) Understand what "green" really means. Green is used so casually nowadays that the truly meaningful actions can be unclear.

So educate yourself about the key eco-issues and solutions, to contribute to wise directions and avoid harmful ones. Deepen your understanding by reading non-mainstream sources (such as this paper!) and hearing different perspectives. Be open to constructive solutions, but cautious about easy answers and smooth-talking façades. The rush to corn ethanol, and backlash over its full costs, should warn us about embracing ideas too uncritically.

2) Buy green wisely. Green your home and business purchases by first considering if you can reach your goals without buying something new. Can you reuse or buy used instead? Can you replace disposable products like paper towels with reusable ones like cloth? Only by reducing our consumption notably can we dial back our destruction of the earth.

When buying products, look beyond "green" labels to understand their claims. (Useful information is at <www.greenerchoices.org/eco-labels>.) Invest in the key solutions, such as conservation, alternative energy, local organic agriculture, and home gardening. What we buy is what we encourage.

3) Green your work. As more people support green solutions, more earth-healing jobs are appearing. For leads, see my page <www.healthyworld.org/jobs.html>.

But you don't have to change your job. Explore how you can green your organization's current activities. Get ideas from periodicals and peers. Read Natural Capitalism <www.natcap.org>.

4) Green your finances. Even your banking and investments can flow money towards more earth-healthy activities. See <www.greenpages.org> for green bank accounts, credit cards, advisors, periodicals, and more.

5) Save money in ways that nurture the planet and your life. For example, carpooling saves money and energy while connecting you with others. Being in nature costs little and brings a centeredness no product ever will.

6) Help change our economic system. The true solution is changing the playing field, shifting what our economic system rewards so that people's financial well-being aligns with the earth's. Unfortunately, many leaders and businesses are still following outdated economic models. Therefore, it's up to us, the many, to reclaim our power and act for a smarter economy. For solutions, search online for "green economics," "green taxes," and "genuine progress indicator." Read Ecology of Commerce and <www.apolloalliance.org>. Find remedies and groups you value, pressure lawmakers, and educate others.

7) Unblock your barriers to action. Action is the antidote to despair! Do you wish you were doing more? Explore what you most want to impact, your barriers to acting, and ways to unblock them. Do you feel too busy? Look for solutions that save time or fit into your current activities. Do you think one can't make a difference? Then consider the harm that our cumulative actions already cause. Or perhaps you haven't found the solutions you seek? Then create them to serve yourself and others!

Yes, looking at these issues can be challenging, but ignoring them only makes them worse. By facing both the dark and the light, the problems and the many solutions just waiting for our support, we can avert catastrophe and co-create a culture that nurtures both people and the planet.

Ask EcoGirl is written by Patricia Dines, Author of The Organic Guides, and Editor and Lead Writer for The Next STEP newsletter.

Email your questions about going green to <EcoGirl@AskEcoGirl.info> for possible inclusion in future columns. View past columns at <www.AskEcoGirl.info>. Also contact EcoGirl for information about carrying this syndicated column in your periodical. "EcoGirl believes that everyone can be a superhero for the planet. Then she shows you how!"

© Copyright Patricia Dines, 2008. All rights reserved.

For more information on related eco-topics, see my other Ask EcoGirl columns.

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