Four Reasons Why People Don't Want to 'Go Green'

As the creator of the Green ABC's for Kids I have found it perplexing to say the least that there is such a resistance to '˜going green'.
Three years ago when I founded the Waynedale Green Alliance, I thought it would be a great way for people to come together to help clean up their world, and save money at the same time. That was not the case.
As time went on, I began to believe that reaching children with green terms and concepts in a fun and inventive way would be the route to take- and so the Green ABC's for Kids was developed and is now beginning to make the rounds.
But still, there is an enormous segment of the population in the United States, primarily the Midwest and Southern states that resist going green. I am currently in the process of compiling a complete report on this puzzling phenomenon '" but for now I have zeroed in on the following four explanations to understand why people just don't seem to want to '˜go green'.

1) Laziness or more politely, inertia- Throughout my research I have found that most people are creatures of habit. We love to drive everywhere we go, we love to eat whatever we want, and we are engrained in those habits. Ask someone to walk to the store (even if it is right around the block) and a howl of pain will shatter the walls. We have become lazy consumers and I am not judging because I am as bad as the next person when it comes to being physical instead of comfortable.

2) Comfort- This goes along with laziness, but it takes us just a step further. We are people who love our air conditioning and warm mornings under the covers in the winter. We are a people who believe that the days will come back when we only paid 25 cents for gas and were able to drive great big cars. Guess what, those comfortable days are over.

Recently, I had a couple of 30-somethings tell me that they were looking forward to the days when the baby boomer generation was gone because when they stepped up as leaders the whole world would turn green.
As a boomer, that wasn't a pleasant thought, and frankly I doubt if it is an accurate one.

3) Fear- We don't like change '" it makes us afraid. We like our large electric bills that come in a nice envelope every month. We like the rivers and pollution-many of us have never known any difference so what's the big deal? Why go to all the trouble to change something that is insurmountable and that will probably never affect us in our lifetimes? We fear the unknown- and the words used to describe green living for many have been loaded with unknowns!

4) Propaganda- Millions of dollars have been spent on telling the American public how freaked out '˜greenies' are. Many still believe there is no such thing as climate change or global warming even with all the facts to the contrary. This is because of the wide-spread propaganda that has been put in place by those who profit by a fossil fuel based world.

And, goodness, that is just four causes!

I recently attended a meeting of a group of student entrepreneurs. Not one of them was working on any innovative green technologies, even though the center it was held at was supposed to be dedicated to innovation. In the future I will be creating more articles about the whys and wherefores of green living. On the whole children will be my target audience.

Why?

Because they are our future and we are not here to be comfortable.