Michael Maniates article "Going Green? Easy Doesn't Do It" hit the nail on the head when it comes to American's perception of the environmental movement and our role as citizens living the "western lifestyle." Throughout this class and many other classes and articles, it is clear that if everyone lived the lavish and wasteful lifestyle that we live as Americans, we would need 5+ planets to sustain us. This fact alone should be more than enough to get people to realize that we need to stop doing things at the micro level and move to more awareness and more pressure to reduce our impact.

I think the way that Michael Maniates challenges the modern environmental movement is correct, but the main target isn't the modern environmental movement - its' those who are only partially aware of the environment who need to change. Working with the DOE and various environmental NGOs that make up the 'environmental movement,' it is clear that at that level, individuals are doing all they can and moving out of their comfort zone to stop their impact on the environment. It's people who are unaware or uninterested in the environment who really need to read this article. The environmental movement has grown and become a more broad-based term, but at its' core, individuals are very aware and working very hard to bring about changes to our system.

I have to confess that I bought my parents one of those books (I think it was something like "Your Basic Questions about the Environment Answered") to help raise their awareness and to try to connect to them on the level that I am focusing on at school. While the suggestions these books, celebrities and other media outlets provide for individuals to help save the planet are mundane and basic to many people involved in the environmental movement, they are also necessary. I'll admit that I get extremely disheartened studying environmental problems and working to try and get others to understand the urgency of our problems, only to be met with attitudes that are unwavering on their wasteful, overconsuming way of life. However, people and governments can only turn a blind eye for so long. I think that Maniates' call for hard work is extremely important. In America, we know what this means. When there is a huge problem that needs to be solved, we've been able to do this. This is evident in World War II and the creation of the atomic bomb. We needed to beat Germany to finish the bomb, so we put our best efforts forth and did it, regardless of cost or hard work expended. It's this type of mentality we need to see in America in order to change our climate and the way that we view the looming energy crisis and climate changes.