Ecological issues - Is world really ready to go green?

Many environmentalists believed when Obama was elected that this would be the start of the "new green revolution" where ecology would be at least equal to industry if not above. After couple of months we can clearly see that green revolution is distant future thing, and not something that miracle man Obama will achieve overnight. I said already before how Obama is first of all politician, and then everything else (including environmentalist), and politics is game of interests, and art of negotiation. Sadly these negotiations are still in favor of industry.

All you have to look at the latest Climate bill that barely passed the first hurdle, namely the House of representatives. With so many concessions to industry and still it barely passed the first hurdle. If scientific estimates of required greenhouse gas emissions cuts prove to be right than this climate bill will really be useless because it is nowhere near the required cuts, especially for short-term targets. And yet Obama celebrates this bill as the historical one. Well when you look at the traditional U.S. dependence on fossil fuels than this bill really looks monumental, because even with such small CO2 emission cuts (17 % by 2020) this still represents a move away from fossil fuels, something that was not imaginable during the Bush era. So this is definitely the step in the right direction, small step however but still in the right direction.

In reality our hopes were too high because we expected "green revolution" to happen overnight, and all the politics can offer us in this time are grounds to build on. Are these grounds strong enough it still remains to be seen, and Copenhagen deal later this year could give us a quick action to this interesting question. Of course we are far from the reality where politics accepted ecology as the ultimate guide for important international agreements but ecology has finally stepped out of the shadow where it was captured for so long. Of course that top spot under the light still belongs to industry and economy but at least ecology is getting some shiny rays from time to time.

What green revolution really requires is the green way of thinking and this is something that is still not possible in western society. Our civilization is too much covered in greed to accept radical changes that are needed for green revolution. Our "green way of thinking" only applies to green color of dollar. Nor grass nor forests aren't green enough in our eyes when compared to almighty dollar, and money is still the main force that rules the world.

Before the green revolution we need to create global ecological conscience and this is something that will take time. But how much time do we have with so many different ecological problems? I would say not too much, and we should really get our values straight as soon as possible. Or else? Let me just say that once we run out of time all the money in the world won't be enough to get us out of the trouble.