Personally, I have never been one to place much faith in the average American. And as much as I would like to believe that Americans are ready for the truth about the environmental crisis, I am not sure that that is true. I feel that most Americans are probably more all the Fish line of thought-laziness, indifference, and lowest price. Of course, the green trend is a growing one, but for many main stream stores this is just becoming the latest way to sell items. There seems to be this belief around the pop culture's green movement that nothing will really need to change. We can all still consume at the same levels as long as we are consuming "environmentally friendly" products. Maybe if our policy-makers stop treating us like children, like Maniates says, we would be able to differentiate between legitimately "green" products and selling points. Maybe we would even start to consume less all together, but I am not convinced. Whether we are aware of the specifics or not, all Americans know about Global Climate Change and we are more than happy to ignore the issues in favor of a continuation of our way of life. Then, when some highly qualified scientist comes into the public eye spouting the ills of consumption and the severity of the environmental issues, we either turn a def ear or worse, turn to some lame argument about how global climate change is all a hoax.

Where I do agree with Maniates is in regards to those of us who would really like to make a difference and simply do not know how. We are told to recycle, to take shorter showers and all that jazz, but then we find out that it really has no effect on the direction the planet is headed. I, for one, feel hopeless. I wonder why there are not bins for recycling in public places like movie theaters or shopping malls? It irritates me more and more everyday when I see a girl in the bathroom pull off 5 of the pre-cut paper towels just so she can throw them all away. If these types of people cannot even make a tiny sacrifice like having damp hands, then how can we ever convince them to listen to politicians who are calling for a change? I am ready to hear the truth about the Global environmental change, but I might not have been two months ago. Being educated about the subject has given me the desire to change and maybe the same would be true for others.