Come And Be A New Hedonist!

Is it just me, or was there an easing of the pressure to make environmental issues take the fore in 2007? 2006 saw the Stern Report; a mass re-branding of organic and fair trade products; and what can only be described as green issues becoming adopted in the mainstream. 2007 didn’t really seem to hold any setbacks for green issues (except the disappointing Scottish general election result), but it didn’t really seem to have many leaps forward either.

Perhaps, we have made some progress though. 2006 brought the environment into the mainstream, maybe 2007 was a sort of settling in period. Will 2008 be the year when we find that the seat is adjusted properly, the seat-belt fastened and the car in gear ready to set off properly? (perhaps driving metaphors aren’t good in a ‘green’ post. Imagine it is an electric Tesla Roadster instead!).

One of the most encouraging green ideas that I heard in 2007 was from Patrick Harvie MSP at the SGP Conference, where he suggested that Greens should be seen as new hedonists, not new puritans.

I couldn’t agree more. Emphasising eco-affluence, as James Martin puts it in “The Meaning of the 21st Century”, can surely do a lot of good in ‘selling’ environmentally sustainable lifestyles to people who would otherwise be disengaged.

And so it gives me a degree of pleasure when I see front page adverts on The Grauniad for Divine Chocolate, and full page ads in The Observer for Union Coffee. When Fairtrade coffee can market itself with the slogan “The finest things in life are crafted by hand…”, and not have to rely on the emotive, Western guilt, side of the product, then we are surely moving in the right direction.

Of course there are hangers on. I saw an advert for an American hybrid petrol-electric SUV that was claiming to be environmentally friendly, despite only getting around 20 miles to the gallon! But greens have a strong chance of moving into even more of the forefront of political issues in 2008, and from the forefront, it will be easier to show up the green-wash.

Failing that, the ‘credit crunch’ and subdued consumerism that we are being warned of ought to do something good for the environment!

Here’s to a green new year!