Everything is not as ecologically sound as it looks.

How in tune were our ancestors with being good stewards of the planet? Things were better in the old days. People were more in tune with the natural world, the air was cleaner, the land less harassed by our demands upon it. The world was, in short, greener. We’ve all heard it before – but is it true? Of course it is – except when you start looking at the details. Don’t go putting our ancestors up on a pedestal of eco-friendly excellence before you know a little more history.

So we’ve looked at prehistoric forest clearances, Roman smog, Greek soil erosion and Byzantine plague.  Not a glowing picture – but it’s not universally bad. Consider the words of this man in the 5th Century BC:

Whoever wishes to investigate medicine properly, should proceed thus: in the first place to consider the seasons of the year, and what effects each of them produces for they are not at all alike, but differ much from themselves in regard to their changes. Then the winds, the hot and the cold, especially such as are common to all countries, and then such as are peculiar to each locality. We must also consider the qualities of the waters, for as they differ from one another in taste and weight, so also do they differ much in their qualities. In the same manner, when one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation, how it lies as to the winds and the rising of the sun; for its influence is not the same whether it lies to the north or the south, to the rising or to the setting sun.

From these things he must proceed to investigate everything else. For if one knows all these things well, or at least the greater part of them, he cannot miss knowing, when he comes into a strange city, either the diseases peculiar to the place, or the particular nature of common diseases, so that he will not be in doubt as to the treatment of the diseases, or commit mistakes, as is likely to be the case provided one had not previously considered these matters. And in particular, as the season and the year advances, he can tell what epidemic diseases will attack the city, either in summer or in winter, and what each individual will be in danger of experiencing from the change of regimen. For knowing the changes of the seasons, the risings and settings of the stars, how each of them takes place, he will be able to know beforehand what sort of a year is going to ensue.

 – Airs, Waters and Places, Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Kos, known today as the “father of Western medicine” and from whom we get the famous Hippocratic Oath, was a man with an eye for the big picture. For him, everything was interconnected – and human beings were as deeply plugged into their environment as the crops and the animals the ancient Greeks relied upon to survive.

Is it a stretch to consider him the first ecologist? It’s true that Greek philosophers of the time had what we would now deem outlandish ideas – personal health being considered a matter of the balance of these 4 “humors” – but Hippocrates was well ahead of his time in considering the climate a vast, interconnected system of causes and effects, paving the way for the development of biological science.

Further reading:

On Airs, Waters And Places – provided by the Internet Classics Archive.

Image: a.drian

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Feel good package design that hooks consumers where it matters most: in the shower.

When you found your perfect shower gel, was it love at first sniff? Probably not. When it comes to shower products – be it for cleansing your body or eradicating mildew – packaging is everything. You’d think that social responsibility starts with a good scrub down, but the eco innards are almost secondary to a product’s efficient, streamlined, biodegradable, recyclable, reusable or otherwise feel-good skin.

Take, for example, the German brand Stop the Water While Using Me!, designed by award-winning agency KOREFE. The brief was: “develop a brand for a high-quality range of cosmetics that meet the increasing requirements of an ecologically aware society and set new standards in environmental protection.” The innovation being, “the message is the brand.”

Clean black and white packaging with a casual font (Ana Regular), plus clever copy about not wasting water equals one tempting purchase. Never mind that the product range does, in fact, require water for use and that the country of origin does not actually have a water issue. It’s an international branding exercise at the source – and the package is all that counts.

Two other eco, organic or otherwise “feel good” shower products that rely on a similarly sleek sell?

Philosophy, “a brand that approaches personal care from a skin care point of view, while celebrating the beauty of the human spirit.” they also employ the use of lowercase letters, exclusively, to drive their point into your homes and bathrooms. the point being: there is no “i” in buy me.

And the Estée Lauder eco-brand Origins, founded in 1990 as a botanical treatment line designed for the environmentally conscious consumer who doesn’t mind spending $13 on a bar of bath soap. The company also owns Prescriptives and Clinique demonstrating that personal care relies not only on fabulous packaging, but on a really good name – and potential medical intervention, too.

That’s not to say that the shower and beauty products mentioned above aren’t what they portend to be, or that their core messages aren’t good for humanity. Simply consider their inclusion here as another branding exercise, one that proves eco is still a big sell and that altruism reigns when we’re at our most vulnerable: naked and dirty.

That being said, we really like this vegan, handmade, cold-pressed soap operation run out of Oregon – and their excellent packaging.

Perhaps it’s just a matter of time before Prunella gets picked up by eco-branding company extraordinaire Hain Celestial Group and marketed on the shelves of a Whole Foods near you.

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Great movements must constantly reexamine themselves if they are to evolve and survive over time. They must self-generate their own “waves” – like feminism’s First, Second and Third – to progress in an often hostile, reactionary world, to “make it” into popular culture. To count outside the cult.

It’s time to ask what this means to the Green movement.

While others have spoken about “third wave environmentalism” in different contexts, the way it makes the most sense is to look at it in terms of the feminist model. Beginning with woman’s suffrage, that movement’s First Wave took on many “officially mandated” inequalities, its Second added to the mix “unofficial” inequalities and lifestyle issues, and its Third is now embracing diversity within the movement and has taken a hard look at some of the shortcomings of earlier incarnations.

Consider First Wave Green to have been 20th century activity surrounding basic environmental laws and practices, such as the establishment of national parks and the advent of wildlife preservation, addressing the most easily identifiable deadly chemicals and carcinogens in the environment, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The current, Second Wave has targeted the consumer, focusing on lifestyle issues such as green consciousness and health choices made by individuals. It has also included the radicalization of the “Green left” and the rise of independent green media. But the evidence shows that green still hasn’t fully tapped into the mainstream; indeed, 2010 has seen consumer and political backlash. For scientists, progressives and the everyday citizens who read sites like this one, it’s both maddening and mind-boggling. Why? Is it time, if not money? Or something else?

It would serve us well to begin to discuss what a Third Wave would look like.

Why now? As we enter the second decade of the new century, many green assumptions are coming under increasingly brighter lights of scrutiny and (sometimes justified) attack. This is in part due the movement’s successes, which  are heroically generating such harsh and determined backlash from the very greatest powers that be – a money- and power-motivated science-denying corporate and pseudo-religious axis that would have the movement die at the next turn.

And here’s some more Why Now: Because green is still niche and has failed to grip the national consciousness in a thoroughly broad-based, mainstream way – something that needs to happen to manifest the kind of change required to “save” our planet. And ourselves.

So what makes a third wave work?

Third Wave Feminism provides an excellent model: It works when a movement has the courage to both embrace its diversity and look critically at previous incarnations and current paradigms – and then has the courage to evolve. This means accepting gains made and respecting the zeitgeist of past efforts, while – and here’s the tough part – deconstructing assumptions to find more resilient truths.

What we’re talking about is taking a look at some of our closely held beliefs and asking ourselves some hard questions: Are things what they appear to be? Have we been making assumptions that might not be based on objective reality? Are we taking important conclusions for granted? What Third Wave Green would embody is the examination of the movements “truths” about what’s good for ourselves and our planet and ask if they are, well, true.

The are many examples of “Green conclusions” that call out for reexamination to help the movement inch closer to more accurate and, if you will, sustainable truths. These sacred cows include environmentalist bedrock, from organic food to green technology, from no fur to no nukes, from recycling to “buy local.” Not even the movement’s core supposition of “environment-first” action should be spared scrutiny. While many of these ideas will hold up to a second look, the reality is that each of these now iconic assumptions have their counterintuitive antitheses that need to be addressed – and in some cases be invited into the Big Green Tent.

Mature movements, like feminism, can withstand unflinching self-examination and criticism from within. Otherwise, it’s a toddler with a tantrum, and the adults are bound to shut the door.

If the Green movement is to survive its continued savaging from the outside as a result of its progress, and in fact enjoy a Third Wave, it must open its arms to diversity of thought and practice from within, even to those points of view that might be outside the norm – for now.

Next week we will look at 10 of the most common green assumptions and their counterintuitive alternatives.

Image: Davichi

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Last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics joined together and went looking for interested citizens to participate in a new anthology.

The topic: personal stories about global warming.

The response: overwhelming. There were over 1,000 submissions from established writers and new voices from across the country.

The result,  Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories About Global Warming, is a collection of 67 essays from scientists, students, activists, parents, journalists, grandparents, artists and business people, all of whom have stories to tell and views to express.

Named after Henry David Thoreau, one of America’s earliest environmentalists, the anthology starts with a foreword by Barbara Kingsolver who sets the book’s tone as she calls on all to realize that we cannot simply pretend nothing is wrong. Writing with energy and enthusiasm, Barbara asks everyone to actively combat climate change.

The essays, chosen by a team of reviewers from Penguin Classics and the Union of Concerned Scientists, fit into the seven chapters that are loosely organized around themes relating to people, the landscape, wildlife and faith.

A limited-edition hardcover coffee table book is available. You can also read the anthology for free at the Thoreau’s Legacy website. Have a look and pass in it, virtually, through email and your social media networks.

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