Why not decades ago for all the "Going Green" initiatives?

Question

Sure with the state of the economy and the gas and food prices no wonder everyone is thinking green but why now rather than years ago. I mean researchers been screaming for decades that earths resources could not handle the consumption rate at which we humans operate. I think that they should have been drilling it our heads about being green conscious and conserving more then and maybe things wouldnt be so bad now. neway just my 2 cents wut do u guys think

Answer 1

Joecool is correct. Reagan became president and destroyed everything environmental. He sort of converted nearly every republican into becoming anti - environment and made anyone who disagreed with his view seem like uncaring, selfish, tree hugging, nuts. He was a convincing actor and still has many followers who fight any effort to share the real wealth among the common folk or make our Earth worth passing to our children.

Joecool also is correct that some environmentalists have been the environmental movement's worst enemy. The reality is that we need an awful lot of energy and unthinking demands to damage or close current systems must be met with suitable replacements.  

We are now at a stage where even many very stuffy conservatives are frightened about our future. Now is the time to make an extraordinary effort to use every safe alternative possible. It is not a time however, to jump crazily into just any power source that is already known to poison the Earth. There are so many clean alternatives like conservation, plug-in hybrid cars, wind and solar so that we should not start new nuclear plants until every other clean alternative is exhausted. Nuclear fuel reprocessing is not new, clean or cheap and should be avoided at all costs. Coal must be cleaned or not used in new power plants but it is a major resource, so it must be used.

You asked why ... now start sending ideas to your leaders. There are still a lot of people who think every "green person" is a tree hugging flake.

Answer 2

The green movement was on the rise up until the early 80's, when the Regan administration declared war on environmental departments and laws, freeing up industry from the fetters that had "held them back". The movement is still recovering.

The original environmental movement had a hand in burning it self out as well. They tried to be a counter culture, but that scares away the majority of people. And then the counter culture lost its way in the fog of increased drug use. Again, the movement is just now regaining some of that momentum, but in a decidedly different way.

Answer 3

Our area first opened the Recycling Center in WWII and was collecting steel and aluminium for the war effort. After aluminium cans first came out they expanded to another facility just to handle all of the extra metal. I think that was in the early 1970's.

The REAL problem is not that we have fewer resources....it's that we have TOO MANY people trying to consume them. It has not yet reached "critical mass" here in the USA, but in MANY countries such as China, Taiwan, Honk Kong, India, Bangladesh, etc...it is out of control. We need to stay focused on birth control and population control. Everything else will resolve itself over time once this problem is addressed globally.