Part III – DIFFERENT SHADES OF GREEN!
MAKE IT PERSONAL!

by Johnny Dollar

What’s that TAG hanging around your neck? Oh, it’s your “CARBON FOOTPRINT”? And you carry that little notepad to tabulate your footprint so you can find ways to reduce your personal emissions? Are exhaling CO2 and farting Methane some of your biggest transgressions? And, what’s that you say, you left your camel at home today and chose to ride your bicycle to work to help save the planet?

You are a wonderful person. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were all as GREEN as you?

What’s wrong with this picture? The reality is that there are different shades of GREEN, depending upon your political persuasion, your ideology, and your personal grasp of reality. If you think that Captain Planet should be our next President, then I’ve got some greenhouse gas I’d like to blow up your nose!

Nothing pisses me off more than someone trying to take advantage of me and trying to do it subliminally, deliberately, and without my permission! Whatever the objective, the approach is always the same. They know better than you. They know more than you. They know what’s best for you. Spare the thought that you have an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness via individual freedom of choice. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

OK, how did different shades of green come to be?

The word green suggests “environmental awareness.” That in itself is not a bad thing. The problem is when it becomes a rallying cry for a wide range of activities with a variety of personal, political, and economic consequences that result in the imposition of an agenda, program, or regulation at the individual level. Then we have a dark shade of green.

While there is an army of agenda-motivated activists working day and night to create a database of hyperbole and hype to justify their hysterical suppositions, on the opposite side are reasonable individuals who live in reality-ville and recognize that it’s not the “actions of the collective” that will make a difference. Rather, it is the collective efforts of individuals that will render global environmental stewardship reasonable and achievable when it makes both common and economic sense! In this sense we see a different shade of green.

So how could we characterize GOOD GREEN INITIATIVES?

Green initiatives at the Individual level should:

> Be grounded in environmental common sense

> Be grounded in economic common sense

> Reflect selective stewardship personal objectives

> Be individually motivated

At the Business Level they should:

> Be grounded in business economic sense

> Provide economic ROI

> Be tactical rather than strategic

> Be business motivated

> Be voluntary

> Be encouraged, not coerced

Bottom line: Individuals should be conscious of and able to discern different shades of green. Buying into the darker shades of green carries great personal risk to your individual freedom of choice.

Brighter shades of green are hues of common and economic sense grounded in reality. Free of the manipulation of unseen agenda-pushers from behind the curtain. Shades that facilitate the individual’s ability to put their personal thumbprint on what they want to support, and to determine their personal future.

The choice of the shade of green is up to you!

Tag, you’re it!

How Long Can We Afford the Added Transportation Expense of the Global Warming Hoax?

Part II: CARBON FOOTPRINT vs. PERSONAL THUMBPRINT: TAG! YOU’RE IT!