“The idealist in me says we need to regulate big business …”

First, you’ll need to define “regulate” and “big business”.

But how about, as a start, we reduce government intervention and remove subsidies and special privileges for businesses (such as the oil companies and auto manufactures). And remove tax breaks for buying trucks, too. Basically, let the real costs of things come through to consumer.

Before considering new government meddling, see if perhaps past and current government behavior isn’t already a big part of the problem.

BTW, LSD and *real* hippies are way more appealing then either yuppies or Cosmo. Or iPods, for that matter. But in any event, branding as “cool” socially important behavior so as to motivate people will only make things worse. It’s like bribing your children to take out the trash or clean their rooms. You can’t sustain it, and it makes you look foolish later on when they are just no longer interested and cannot be manipulated.

Seriously: two things the world does not need more of is government and marketing.

for some people, being green is very sexy. People like me find hippie/environmentalist girls pretty sexy. And unfortunately, there are few people like me.
The iPod is a product. Being green is not a product. It’s probably green products (like electric cars) that will need to have a good marketing strategy that really stands out.

We all need to care. Many people care about things that aren’t really that important. Our lust for convenience is killing the world.
It hasn’t taken long to make some big changes to the world. Hopefully it won’t take long to help. I cannot see an approach of marketing this necessary revolution as trendy being successful over-time.

If fads were more permanent I would still be wearing tie-died t-shirts!

#1 it already is profitable, you just have to be clever and have strong leadership which are rare traits in many businesses today.

Have you read Natural Capitalism? Quite interesting and thought provoking.

Afraid I have to agree with Julien. You’re thinking about your neck of the woods but places exist where green is very very sexy. In these magical places, people wear Birkenstocks AND Chuck Taylors (I own both). In these places, the natural food stores and farmer’s markets make more money than the local Circle K. In these places, people who drive electric cars get laid like rock stars. In these places, we all have iPods but prefer the sound of rushing water.
We are a town of (for the most part) like-minded people with different priorities. A hippie nest, if you will.
We will most likely never change the priorities of people who have what I like to call “iPriorities” but I think the key is to make green equal convenience.
Maybe we could call it iVironmentilism and have Apple market it? Won’t the yuppies buy anything with an “i” in front of it?

“Going green” is definitely sexy to certain groups - sure - but it’s not yet sexy to the masses, hence my suggestion. Marketing may be evil, but it works, whether we admit to it or not.

I certainly didn’t mean to knock those of you who already have your Kool-Aid in hand. To the contrary, I’m happy you get to live in a place where it’s hip to care about something other than iStuff.

I’ve been guilty of a little iPrioritizing myself, but I’m coming to my senses.

Re: Your third point:

Pain is the body’s way of protecting itself. There is a rare genetic defect that leaves the unfortunate children born with it unable to perceive pain. While this at first sounds like the stuff of super hero origin stories, it isn’t: They usually die young, the result of massive infections from various untreated injuries. Often, the major problems begin when their teeth come in and they begin biting themselves.

Destroying the earth has so far brought us a lot of pleasure but very little pain. We need to somehow accelerate the pain perception of the damage, because by the time we *naturally* feel the pain of a damaged earth (enough to motivate self-saving actions) it will be much too late for any action.

The government needs to play a big part, here. Can you think of other times in history when the real damage of something was not felt by quite enough people, and the American government took action to close that gap? The civil rights act comes to mind. The mileage improvement requirements placed on automakers decades ago helped give us the incredibly gas-efficient cars we have today (IF people choose to buy those cars is another issue, I guess). The government has blown it, too - taking action too late, or not at all, or jumping the gun where it probably shouldn’t have (there are misguided preservation efforts, too. Spotted owls, anyone?)

But this is not an American crisis - this is a human crisis. Nature hardly cares where we have drawn our lines.