Brainstorming

Reading the Vanity Fair green issue again got me all fired up. I agree with Arnold and I've been saying it for a long time, in order to make progress we need to make environmentalism hip and trendy. Not only that, but we need to make it more convienent. Vanity Fair and Outside are giving it a good start but there are still millions of people out there who look at you like a freak if you don't eat meat or talk about recycling.

My mind swirls with ideas. I'd like to profile people who are making efforts for the environment. Not just celebrities and big CEO's, but the little people, who are giving their time and energy to help create momentum. I want to help make them look real cool like they are. The more publicity these people get, the more business and recognition they'll get and the more people will follow.

I belong to a hip online business review site called Yelp.com. Anyone can visit a place, experience the service and write about it. Since joining, I've used it to choose more than 2 weeks of lunch spots and recommended places to my friends. Someone should start a site like that just for business that are living up to green standards. If it becomes cool to live green, more and more teenagers and young adults will do it and they are the ones that will have the biggest impact in the near future.

My friend sells dry cleaning machines and told me some disturbing information. He said there are still dry cleaners out there that use toxic chemicals which get poured down the drain and into our water system. There are places that still have the old machines that aren't EF. (environmentall friendly) The worst part is that no one is enforcing the laws. Stuff like this boils my blood.

I saw a guy with a shopping cart going house to house collecting cans and bottles. Imagine if we could get all those hard working bottle collectors to streamline their process somehow that would benefit them and our neighborhoods. For example, local business could collect their recycling and just give it to these people, who are trying to make an honest living. That way, we support local private businesses and help homelessness.

Props to Leo, Robert Redford, Sheryl Crow, Julia Luis Dreyfus and a handfull of others who are using their celebrity for good causes. They inspire me.