Kermit the Frog said it best: "it’s not easy being green.” After a crash course on energy and the environment, I’ve learned that being green can be achieved in three basic steps.
First: communication. It’s hard to talk to people about the energy crisis when most people don’t even know what you’re talking about. Scientific vocab needs to be simplified to layman’s terms so that regular people can understand it—even if it takes something as outlandish as Lady Gaga donning a Kermit suit.
Next: conversation. My classmates and I all know by now that Planet Forward is “a conversation about energy and the environment.” But what does that really mean? Conversation means two-way talk—not just scientists preaching to the public, not just environmentalists promoting a cause, but a dynamic dialogue. And we, as journalists, need to make that conversation engaging so that ordinary people want to get involved. From videos to blog posts to RSS feeds, we learned how to take advantage of social media and storytelling techniques to truly interact with an audience.
Finally: action. New technology appears all the time, but the ideas that have real impact are the ones that can inspire people to take action: ideas based on passion, ideas that are the first, and ideas that affect their community.
So what have I learned? Though being green may not be easy, it is possible. You just have to follow the steps.