Economy Priority Over Environment, Global Warming HooHa
Browsing through various news on green life on the grounded “every American” level, I found a blogpost from the NYTimes showing a Gallup Poll this month indicating that, for the first time in over two decades, Americans feel considerations for the economy trump environmental concerns.
According to this post, another recent Gallup Poll shows that the majority of Americans believe global warming threats are greatly exaggerated. People ask me about this constantly.
A friend and mentor on Twitter pointed out that polls can be “useless” and “confusing”. That is true. The mere wording of a question can greatly alter how people respond to it. The source also has to be considered because, as I have heard many times, anyone can find the result they want if they try.
I can easily see where Americans would feel that environmental issues need to be overlooked for now if it could mean saving our flailing economy. Too many Americans are in daily survival mode. Spending large amounts of money and time on more expensive alternative energies, organic foods, and other “green” endeavors seems unjustified to many.
If you couple the “economy v. environment” debate with the “is global warming a farce?” debate, you can truly see why people would choose economic stability initiatives at the sacrifice of environmental efforts.
These either/or arguments are short-sighted and highly deficient, however, and stem from a mix of media chaos and one-way thinking.
Traditional news media love to propogate/slam global warming, economic fears, and right-wing/left-wing rhetoric. If we stay afraid, if we pit against each other, if we only hear the extreme perspectives, we will cling to the news media for more information that confirms what we want confirmed.
Feeling that the economy can only be saved at the sacrifice of the environment or that the environment will only be saved at the sacrifice of a sound economy is simply a lack of knowledge regarding history and economics.
Whether you personally want economic stability, a healthy family, farmers who are paid well, a thriving city life and career, or a lush yard in the country, each of these comes down to environmental welfare.
While moving into a “green” lifestyle or environmentally-minded decisions requires cost analysis and consideration, the forethought to know saving a dime right now can cost us exponentially in the near future is what will thrive in the new economy.
Capitalism will reward careful thought and implementation of environmentalism in the economy.
So decide if you actually need to watch that extra half-hour of news media, consider the source of the information you receive, take a giant breath in, exhale, and know somehow, someway, we can all be OK, including our environment.
Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue
