“Climate change probably represents the biggest threat to human health over the next 10 or 20 years.” Ashish Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. The term ‘sustainability’ has been bandied around in academic circles and popular culture for decades, possibly to such an extent that it’s simply become another buzzword to be ignored. […]
Rethinking Life 
Comments on: "Making a Commitment to Sustainability — my quest blog" (4)
We do need more people making a commitment to it. One problem is that it’s easy to think that “what I, one small person, do, won’t have any effect, so why bother?”
That is definitely a problem. Another one is…no one else is doing it so why should I? I don’t know how to combat either one of those things.
There needs to be something that makes “going green” a social competition. Just like Instagram is about sharing photos, Twitter is about sharing thoughts — there might needs to be a new social media thing that is about sharing to the world your “greenness”.
When people can get social credit for say, buying some Renewable Energy Credits, they will have more incentive to do so.
I agree. Another problem is cost. Many times, Green costs more that things that pollute. But I think picking ONE thing and working on that, might start the ball rolling. How about getting rid of plastic bags, beginning with grocery stores. We need ONE thing, so people can deal with it. Too many things and people give up, become overwhelmed. But if they start, it’s easier to keep going. I’m open to ideas. It’s all about beginning. And you’re right, incentives work. I still think stopping companies from polluting, instead of being able to keep paying fines in order to keep doing so, is something that we need to do.