Environmentalism in the Last Five Years

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When I started thinking about the last decade from an environmentalist’s perspective, I could really only remember the last five -- because 2005's when I started blogging, and of course when BlogHer officially came into being! Granted, not much good green stuff happened during the first half of the decade, since the eco-momentum really started getting more noticeable after An Inconvenient Truth hit the theaters in 2006. Look at Grist's Top green stories of the '00, and you'll note that most of the news happened in the last few years -- Bush's pulling us out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001 not withstanding.

Image credit: EJP Photo via Flickr

Grist's list looks at bigger political and pop culture events, but I wanted to focus on somewhat smaller, everyday-type environmental successes that we've seen in the last decade -- green successes that we can see as we go through our daily lives. A few of note:

A slow deplasticking. The last decade brought us the first plastic bag bans in some cities! Activists did everything from sail on a boat made of plastic bottles to give away free reusable bags to hoard plastic trash to make films like Addicted to Plastic. Many people took anti plastic bottle pledges -- and disposable bottled water sales finally started going down! All this drew attention to the growing problem of plastic trash and its harmful consequences, not just for the environment but also for our health and our finances (a lot of our taxes go towards cleaning up plastic messes).

A craftier DIY culture. Stitch 'n Bitch (the books), Swap-O-Rama-Rama, Etsy and the inevitable Regretsy all came into existence in the last decade, creating a new generation of DIYers. Whether to save money, avoid mass market produced products, create new home-based businesses or simply to have fun learning a new skill, many started making instead of buying. The craft culture found a nice synergy with the growing environmental movement, which was eager to upcycle their own clothes into new goods, fix instead of buying new, grow their own food, and make their own jam.

A tastier, healthier table. Speaking of homemade jam, real food became a huge concern thanks in part to massive food recalls and shocking videos revealing sickened animals about to be turned into hamburgers. Activists signed up to try the 100-mile diet, made thought-provoking films like Food, Inc., and even staged eat-ins to demand better food in schools. Thanks to their work, many schools and universities -- and even the White House! -- have greened up their menus, sourcing healthier, locally-grown food and planting their own gardens. One Tennessee town went so far as to pass a green food resolution.

Of course, those successes aren't complete, by any means. Plastic bag bans have only happened in a few cities, and attempts to pass bans in many Californian cities have been stymied by lawsuits from the plastic bag industry. Etsy makes crafters and buyers find each other very easily -- but a new law threatens to put some crafters out of business. Some school kids have benefited from overhauls of their menus, but many many more are eating hamburger made with ammonia-tainted, E.coli-tainted meat.

So what I hope for in the next decade is this: More collective action to change our local and national policies. Take what you've started doing in the last year, and get active! Made toting reusable bags a habit last decade? Then join the fight to ban plastic bags in your town this decade. Started shopping at the farmers' market last year? Then start fighting to get real food in schools by getting involved with Slow Food. Created an Etsy account when it launched? Then join the effort to make sure new consumer protection laws don't inadvertently put organic baby clothing and handmade eco-friendly toy makers out of business. What will you make happen in the new decade?

Related posts:

Année Tousseau at Sierra Club's The Green Life offers tips that'll help you stick to your green new year's resolution.

Kara Cook at Ethical Style's made a resolution to stay ethical and in style. Among her goals: "want a life with less polyester. 'Plastic' by any other name…."

Beth Terry, fellow BlogHer contributing editor and author of Fake Plastic Fish, created only 3.7 pounds of plastic trash in 2009 -- roughly