Monday, January 15, 2007

"Eco" things vs. just "things."

I wonder if what we call "eco-friendly" or "green" now will ever just be the norm. It'd be nice if someday things like "organic cotton" were just referred to as cotton, and maybe what we call cotton now would be called "dirty cotton" or something like that. The other day I was talking with my wife about the prospect of a green generation on the horizon; I said that if it's true that 2006 will go down in history as the year the world "woke up" to environmental issues, then there must be many more couples like us out there who have an Earth-friendly awareness, and who therefore will raise their children to live the same way. That means that somewhere in our future there could be a time when the burning of fossil fuels will no longer be normal, but "backwards." Our children, or our grandchildren, or even our great-grandchildren, might be living in a world much cleaner than the one we have today, and their global consciousness will be working to make it even better. Then phrases like "environmentalism" won't be quite so common, because everyone will be an environmentalist by default. I'd like to be around to see that world, but even if I'm not I would like to know it's on its way.

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