Most of us do not think much about the meaning of colors but they are around us all the time. Like the red for stop or danger, yellow for caution and green for drive real fast before the light changes. For environmentalists green has an entirely different meaning. The color green has become generally accepted as the symbol of something that is safe or friendly to the environment. A few years ago computer monitors started getting a ˜green" rating when they were built to go into standby mode if nothing had been typed after a few minutes, which saved power. More...Now-a-days being ˜green" has and is being applied to a wide range of consumer products like hybrid cars; seafood caught in ways the does not harm the environment and hair care products that do not involve animal testing. All of these items are probably going to cost more that non-green products. But, there is another factor coming into play that most people do not think about the, ˜cool factor“, which tends to offset the extra cost. Yes, it is now becoming "cool" for someone to be ˜green" and this is not just on Saint Patrick's Day. The retail giant Wal-Mart has seen the ˜green" light although there are green backs in close proximity. Wal-Mart is now marketing organic cotton baby clothes. If wild caught fish are sold at Wal-Mart they must be caught in such a way that the fisheries are sustained and not diminished (no overfishing). There are even ˜green" warriors out there who are painting SUVs and Hummers in dealer's car lots green - using biosafe paint of course. Back in the day when it was not cool to be green products that were ˜green" generally cost a good bit more and if food it was said that they were about as tasty as leaves and twigs. To paraphrase, I think it was Euell Gibbons that said "many parts of a Volkswagen are edibl". So, I guess to start off ˜green" left a bad taste in people's mouths. When being ˜green" first started, and I'm not sure when, it was something people or organizations generally did without regard for purely economic gain. But, rather what their actions did for the environment. In the end it does not really matter whether you are ˜green" for the environment, to be ˜cool" or for the money we will all become ˜green" one way or the other.

Think Global - Act Local!