At a meetup in Dumbo about the enviornment focusing tonight on TreeHugger Blog and Green Energy.

10 nations are happier than the US yet cut their carbon emissions showing that happiness is not based on consumption though the quality of life differs.

Note: it strikes me the countries being quoted are jungle or mountainous, I’m not sure we can or should compare ourselves with the Swiss, Colombia or El Salvador.

Quotes from Robert Grudin suggest we can make it and we can live on a lot less, and even be happier.

We can do it, but can we do it and maintain our lifestyle. Humans are evolving in the right direction, but can we make the changes fast enough. We have what we need.

Can we think long term? In a way, we’re not designed to think long term, and especially about things that are invisible at this time.

Can we care about unknown, unborn people and weird animals? We’re not very friendly to ourselves or others.

The editor of TreeHugger points out points out that while little things will help he doesent think those measures are going to be enough (like 250 easy tips to help the enviornment that don’t require much sacriface).

He thinks we put excessive value on some things like the amount of space we think we need.

There are a number of different ways we can go, and in 30 years there can be a tremendous delta.

Note: of the 35 or 40 people in the room with me, there’s a lot of questions and people who feel strongly.

I admit, I haven’t been particularly active in the Green Movement. What is clear is that Green Energy Conservation doesn’t yet scale well and it is hard to come up with aset of steps that will work for everyone.

Social Norms develop and change over time, in favor of these changes.

One issue in renewable energy is the changing prices of conventional energy that prevents us from planning for the future.

I think it’s interesting I’m sitting at this meetup at the dawn of the Obama Administration as much of what we’re talking about, here, will be a large part of the Stimulus Package(s) coming soon.

I think I’ll hang out here, a little longer.

Graham@treehugger.com
Onwards and Upwards