Spreading The Word About Green Living
What can children teach their parents about the environment?
I think children teach us honesty about the environment. They hold no quarter with people who are hypocrites about this, or say one thing and do another when you're out there talking about recycling or energy conservation. There was a time years ago, back in 1990, the 20 year anniversary of the first Earth Day, and people would say: "You have to ride share. It's important that we all save energy." "Cut." "You got it? OK. Where's my limo? I gotta get home. You have a gift bag for me?" There's that syndrome that's kind of a mistake, let me just say; I think it's a mistake. So, I've tried to be consistent and kids hold us to that standard very well. They catch every little detail. My daughter does, and she's very wonderfully strict.
What is the most important thing I can do to help the environment?
If I had to sum one thing you can do to help the environment, distill it to a phrase, it would be, "Drive less." There's ways to do that. Use public transportation, if it's available where you live (and it is in L.A.) Ride a bike if weather and fitness permit, and weather certainly permits here in Southern California. The most important thing you can to do help the environment is to drive less. You're going to put money in your pocket, lessen our dependence on Middle East oil and combat global climate change. It's good every way you slice it.
Can my actions really make a difference on the environment?
How can I get the government to act?
I think there's so many things you can do to motivate the government to act. You know, Ghandi said "when people lead, governments will follow." I think there's some truth to that. We get to vote on Election Day. We vote in people that share some of our same values. You also get to vote with your letter writing, your fax or email or letter writing to our public officials. They take that quite seriously when someone sends them a letter, an email or fax. They multiply that times a thousand. If one person writes them a letter they go "wow, there's probably a thousand people that feel that way about the environment" or whatever you do. And another vote, and I've saved the best for last, the best vote you get to do, you get to vote with your dollars, to vote on the showroom floors, in the supermarket aisles, in the appliance stores,to vote with your dollars to buy the most energy efficient products, the products that are the best for the environment. That's your ultimate vote. That's your number one vote; how you vote with your purchasing power.
What could happen if we don't help the environment?
No one knows what will happen if we don't act to help the environment. There's a lot of theories and they've done a lot of computer models; most of the computer models - the vast majority, nearly all of them - say the consequences would be quite dire. By that they mean that rising sea levels that would really create tremendous upheaval in places like Bangladesh, Marshall Islands, Southern Florida, Manhattan. Sea level rise could be quite a problem if that turns out to be the result of not helping the environment.
