Are we really going green?

“You mean you would have a green page once a week or so,” I said.

“No,the whole paper would be green,not just one page once a week,but all the pages all through the year,” he corrected me.

This did surprise me a lot. I just couldn’t believe that,when many renowned newspapers only had a green column,or at best,a green page,his newspaper — not much known for its environmental leaning,was going completely green.

So I said,“It means greening of all the advertisements,features,news stories,editorials,and so on,day in and day out. Is it really possible?”

“That’s completely out of the question. But,what has that got to do with our plan?” he asked me.

“Didn’t you just tell me that the whole issue of your newspaper would be green?” I asked,in a tone which couldn’t hide my confusion.

“Yes,I did say that. We are,indeed,switching over to green-coloured newsprint for our paper. If you don’t believe me,you will see it soon yourself,” he assured me.

I must tell you here this manager was,by no means,trying to be comical. So he couldn’t have meant it even as a poor joke. He was simply ignorant. And then,this was 25 years ago.

But what is the position today? How many people still talk about sustainable development and the need to go green,more as catch phrases than anything else? Doesn’t it remind us how,some 50 years ago,people talked about a socialistic pattern of society without really meaning much? ‘Going green’ is not just a fashionable phrase. It doesn’t only mean planting trees on a large scale,or going solar. It is much more than that. Primarily,it means knowing and respecting the limits of the closed systems of our one earth. It further means adjusting our individual and collective consumption patterns so that these limits are not crossed. Equally importantly,it’s about acknowledging that everyone has an equal right to the basic comforts of life. Unless there is a genuine and visible improvement in this awareness across the world,we can’t truthfully say that we are going green.

It’s quite easy to make fun of the newspaper manager quoted above. He was,at the end of the day,blissfully ignorant. But what about those who are well informed,but don’t believe in genuinely going green?

The author is an entrepreneur and Founder Trustee of Arbutus,a leading NGO working towards education for sustainable development