Hi there

My name is Al and I run City Hippy (http://www.cityhippy.net) - a green diary of our struggle to live a greener and fairer life.

We are a collective of writers based in the UK, USA, Canada and a few other parts of the planet. Mostly City Hippy is me though!

The team at Greenthinkers have kindly invited me to contribute occasionally to this site…feel quite honoured!

So here is my first contribution. I intend to post a Green thought o’ the month. May post more but have a baby due (well my wife does anyway) on Nov 26th AND City Hippy to run of course AND a regular job etc etc.

Have been watching the Greenthinkers blog for just under a year now and have enjoyed the content. But what I think I enjoy most of all is the whole premise of the site: A place for green thinking. Sounds so idyllic. If this site were a place it would be a friends house just above a lake in a forest outside of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. Bliss!

City Hippy’s green thought o’ the month Over at City Hippy we really do not like to criticise or get negative if people are not perfectly green (as if that is even possible). We do not like it when green people judge other green people for being LESS green than they are. Or when people get all told you so, as if the effects of global warming are something to be gloated over!

We all do what we are comfortable doing. The real issue is about helping people get green and that requires helping them to understand what they do, why they do it and the impact of their actions.

That is how people change for the better: by understanding and changing themselves. Bullying does not work! Upsetting people and stealing their energy does not make them more likely to consider their actions and adopt greener behaviour.

We find that by being supportive and helpful, people tend towards logical, sensible & rational behaviour. And being green is all about considered behaviour, cause & effect, reconnecting and ultimately feeling a part of nature and not apart from nature!

If you think that makes sense then check out a great book I am reading, a book I intend to review soon on City Hippy called:

The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It’s Too Late

So for me, Greenthinkers (& City Hippy for that matter), is all about positive reinforcement to help people get green, at whatever pace suits them. The alternative is absurd.

City Hippy’s Take-away: Remember that the goal is to live in a green world NOT to win some green behaviour competition. Next time someone reaches out to you to try and get green, embrace that positive opportunity and help them make the change!

Namaste

CH