It is week three of writing this blog. My aim in the beginning was simple — to go “green” in my life by taking easy steps. I have hit my first bump in the road. What happened? I read NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s latest book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution**.”

In chapter nine of the book, titled “205 Easy Ways to Save the Earth,” Friedman makes fun of books, magazines, and blogs just like this mine, in which writers offer “easy steps” to saving the planet. He says that any real revolution requires pain, and if the steps are too easy, it probably means that the actions are more cosmetic than creating any real change. The big issue in saving our planet is not just about recycling newspapers, but public policy, especially reducing the global C02 emissions that will triple by 2075, with the Third World growing and improving their living standard. These problems require national AND international actions that seem almost impossible to achieve in the current political environment.

“When everyone – Democrats and Republicans, corporations and consumers – claims to embrace your cause, you should suspect that you have not really defined the problem, or framed it as a real political question,” said the Harvard philosopher Michael J. Sandel. “Serious social, economic, and political change is controversial.”

This quote from the book made me wonder – would my time better be used writing my representatives in Washington and pushing for corporate and public policy change than worrying about what type of bag to choose at the supermarket? I believe in personal responsibility, but how much help are these little efforts in the long run? Am I “going green” just to feel good about myself or to pose as eco-chic?

Of course, the fact that I am thinking about these issues is a positive sign. Saving the environment has to be more than just driving a hybrid and not littering. But it is exactly these actions that have forced me to think about the bigger environmental issues. Sure, my personal efforts are just pebbles in the ocean, but a lot of pebbles can add up, and even if my actions are somewhat symbolic, they raise my self-awareness. I would like to push for more change, even be more political, but before I do that, I have to learn the facts. I can’t say I am green when I don’t really understand the challenges, and the difficult road ahead. So, this week, I skipped doing any baby steps in going green. Instead, I am reading and educating myself.

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