Great Green Idea: Green Living: Back to Basics: Green Means Living Simplified

Back to Basics: Green Means Living Simplified

Let's be honest. Living green isn't always a glamorous lifestyle. As people, many of us have gotten used a certain standard of living.

We like to eat what we want and as much as we want. We like living comfortably, and most of all, we like doing all of this while exerting as little effort as possible. What that all boils down to is that while green living is nice in theory, most of us are simply too lazy to make green living more than just that, a theory. Laziness is, in many ways, more destructive than outright denial. The reason why is because it means that while the consequences and benefits have been properly weighed and understood, the person in question simply doesn't care enough to change anything.

The popular thought being that even if the consequences of inaction come to pass, it'll affect later generations instead of those living in the current generation. That may have held true 50 or even 60 years ago, but people are still telling themselves the same thing. They are giving the same excuses despite the mounting evidence that that vaguely referenced 'later generation' is now the 'current generation' and with each instance of procrastination the situation grows worse. What may not be easily understood is that living green doesn't have to be some complicated process. Living green can be as simple a way of life as what we're used to now.

Green living will take care of many of the seemingly unsolvable problems that have been cropping up. Oil spills, air pollution, the extinction of animals and plant life, increasing occurrences of natural disasters, severe climate changes are signals that our planet needs help. The only difference is that unless the misfortune affects us directly, there's little chance that we'll react to it.

There's no shame in such an attitude since it is human nature. The problem arises not from our nature but from our habits. By taking on the simpler ways of going green, we can still embrace our nature while reducing the devastating effects that our habits coupled with our indifference has wrought on the world. Recycling, saving food and used items, cutting short on unnecessary things, and finding alternative fuel sources will in no way solve all our problems. What it will do is help us turn a sick planet into a healthier one, and, as the years go by with the earth's most abundant mammal treating it just a bit more gently, that sickness will eventually fade away as well.

The point of going green isn't just to look good. It isn't something that you can put on a college rÃ©sumÃ© or on your online dating profile and expect to be praised for. It's something that needs to be done because the human race has strayed from the basics for far too long and now it's time to dump a few of those bad habits and try to make things right again.