green is universal

Green is Red, White, & Blue

Posted at 01:28 PM on November 10, 2007 comments (0)

By By Simran Sethi, NBC News

In my first few days on-air as NBC News' new contributing environmental correspondent, I was labeled a "flaming liberal" by a gentleman on the web. Why? Because of my affinity for clean air, safe food, and healthy water and the suggestion that one easy thing people can do for the environment is to vote for elected officials that care about the preservation of natural resources - and hold them to task once they are elected.

My commitment to the environment is informed and inspired by leaders like Martha Marks, co-founder of Republicans for Environmental Protection who first helped me bridge the red/ blue divide and understand that we all share our natural resources and are dependent on our environment; Arianna Huffington, who reminded me that "rhetoric is cheap" and we must continue to monitor our elected officials once they are in office; and Interface CEO Ray Anderson, who heralds the concept of a "restorative enterprise" and the cost savings eco-efficiencies afford businesses.

President Teddy Roosevelt stood before Congress is 1907 and said: "The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life." Waterkeeper Alliance president and Natural Resources Defense Counsel (NRDC) attorney Robert Kennedy Jr. calls environmentalism "the most fundamental civil rights issue." Activists from Harlem to West Oakland are working to transform the blue collar economies that have dissolved in an era of globalization into vibrant green collar economies that make the United States a market leader in the development of renewable resource development and technology. And Wall Street is pouring funds into environmentally-forward businesses and funds not for philanthropic purposes but because they believe green will beget green.

The paradigmatic shift in what environmentalism is and who environmentalists are is an exciting one. All issues can be viewed through a green lens because they all exist within and our dependent on our ecosystem. Environmental issues are issues of public health, national security, and economic prosperity. Environmentalists are teachers, preachers, hunters, businesspeople, and soccer moms. And our collective concerns to preserve our farmlands, sustain our businesses, and sustain global leadership do not belong exclusively to the Reds or the Blues. Green, yes I am going to say it, is Universal.

By Simran Sethi
http://www.nbcnews.com