Green à la mode

Going green has never been trendier; environmentalism has become undeniably hip. (Being fabulously au courant myself, I can say this with the utmost confidence.) For example, vegetarianism, or some form of it - such as flexivegetarianism - is ubiquitous, as are funky re-usable shopping bags on the shoulders of the modish.

July 1st's Urban Word of the Day on Urbandictionary.com, an indisputably hip and trendy website that provides definitions, wiki-style, for hip and trendy words, is: carbon guilt. According to jenngirl, who posted this word in September 2007, carbon guilt is "the feeling of guilt for using too much carbon, e.g. too much air travel, driving to the corner shop in the car." Comments reveal mixed reactions, ranging from "great phrase" to "get over it".

Mixed reactions or not, the implication of its selection as Word of the Day is manifest. Carbon guilt, and other phrases of the carbon kind, are in vogue. People are definitely talking about carbon these days, but are they thinking about it? Do they fully understand the full significance of the phrases they're flipping?

"People having been increasingly aware of their carbon footprints," maintained Cheryl, "but not enough people are feeling guilty about it, in my opinion." Cheryl, a rising senior at Swarthmore College (a Swattie), is incredibly hip and trendy. Her credentials include her music collection -- selectively exhaustive from Girl Talk to Hot Chip to Beirut --, her clothing -- skinny jeans, band T's, plastic frame glasses --, and her hobbies -- film, media, and nonprofits.

Cheryl has a point - more and more folks are speaking the greenspeak, flinging "carbon footprint" around like a frisbee on a mid-May afternoon, but how many of them are realizing--no, feeling--the meaning of the terms? I can talk about carbon footprints, I can even calculate my own, but will I feel guilty about what I find? Will I act on my guilt? Will I change...anything about myself? Or will my carbon remain sequestered in passing notes and casual remarks?

I'm here neither to promote nor dismiss these green trends and their setters and followers. Yes, green is trendy, but trendy means more than being fashionable or in style; a trend is a progression, a movement. And that's what we are, here at 1sky. 1sky is a hip, cool movement that is also indubitably and tremendously exciting, collaborative, and urgent. It's moving out, it's moving up, and it's moving fast.

So: join the movement! Climate change action is a gripping ride, whether or not you want to consider it hip. But, if you are going to eat it, wear it, or say it, make sure you feel it, as well.

-This post was written on a Mac, while listening to Girl Talk, wearing a fashion belt, and feeling extremely galvanized about climate action-