“Going Green” is everywhere right now, and nowhere more than in retail stores. Most of the things that we think of as good for the environment, such as recycling and bringing our own bags to the supermarket, but Goleman suggests that these aren’t the most important things we should be doing. The problem is that knowing what the right choices to make is not easy. The production, manufacture and transportation of products each have their own environmental impacts that, when we’re standing in the store, are impossible to know or compare with one another. The people who study these things are highly detailed specialists who create complex reports. Everyone, from manufacturers to retailers to consumers are in the dark about what are the best things they should do for the environment and how to evaluate the choices available.

Goleman paints an eye-opening picture about the present and future of ecological awareness, and the need for all of us to become more aware of the impact of what we do. To make us aware, he gives many examples on everything from yogurt lids to shampoo to pharmaceuticals, but he also uses some faulty logic, especially when describing the environmental past. While I take him at his word that human ecological impact on the planet is accelerating and becoming more negative, I feel he gives to much a romantic picture of the past. He says the past was a more innocent age, and that th choices did not seem to matter as much. There is much literature about the industrial revolution that suggests that captains of industry knew exactly what they were doing and that there were people who were trying to stop it.

But I agree with Goleman that the future is the important thing here; the problem is that the whole thing seems so overwhelming. And our expectations have become set that we expect certain standards in our products and homes. If it turns out that these things are harmful, will we be able to give them up? And with so many people in the world, it seems that the potential for dire consequences is great, and the chance of reversing it is small. Most of us decide that doing something, trying, is better than not. Ecological Intelligencesuggests that the solution is for each of us to become aware of our own impact, and to spread that messsage to others and to the companies we do business with.

Our “Christmas Cactus” has decided to bloom this week. Um, Happy Father’s Day, Dad.

A Few Things I Find Fascinating about the Idea of Twitter:

1. We get to find out small, everyday details about friends, family members, mentors and even celebrities without really disturbing them. We can keep in touch with people on astrangely human, immediate level. From a pure lurking standpoint  I think that is great, because isn’t the biggest loss of a friend of family member swhohas moved away or gotten too busy to spend time with us that we lose those little moments.
2. The idea of a strict character limit (140) fascinates me : in browsing around the Twitter site the other day, i am struck by how poetic some tweets are, whether by accident or design. I once wrote a haiku in my journal daily for a month as my only journaling, trying to capture the essence of what had happened. Tweets can become a whole new art form, something great to think about instead of the death of letter writing.
3. We’ve also been whining a lot the last few years about how the internet was supposed to be the ulitmate democratic tool,but the glut of so much stuff out there has made it sometimes difficult to find the things we actually care about. Steven Johnson points out that with Twitter, a whole archive of links and information is being created, and that your network of follwers and followees may be a great first place to look for information that you need.
4. Portability. Because you can use services like Twitter and Facebook while virtually never actually logging into the website through feeds on other websites, portable phones, and the like means we can customize things to our liking, and not be subject to twitter’s ways of organizng and setting up andstyling things. I recently switched by browser homepage to google because I find I can have the sutom information about news, weather,a nd diversions that I want.
5. I do wonder, though, if I started posting tweets about what I’m doing/eating/going/etc on twitter, wouldn’t that be opening me up to criminals/stalkers/and even further sense of never being disconnected from the world. Granted, you can choose when, what and how often to post, but I already get complaints from people because i frequently trurn my cell phone off.
6. Would it get old seeing the boring posts by friends and family members who overdo it? Or who rant about pet causes? I have a facebook account and have experienced tht, but have also learned how to hide friends in that category.

I’m writerbat on twitter.  Maybe I’ll try posting a few tweets and finding some people to follow. If you have a twitter account and want me to follow you, let me know.