Writers:

Mood Rings -- The New Green Bling

Posted on April 9, 2008 at 9 a.m. by Jill.

"I'd like to see a new green fad for electronic jewelry with real-time displays of carbon footprints. These could be mood rings, bracelets, lapel pins or anything else that could change color depending on how much electricity you use, how much gasoline your car burns, how much you travel."

"The displays might change color from red to yellow to green as a carbon footprint diminishes...The green might be a dim shade for those who have bought carbon credits to offset their energy use, but a much brighter shade for those who've reduced emission to below-average without having to buy credits."

"Of course it would be a chore to set up monitors for energy use, but plenty of greens are willing to give lots of time to the cause. Some are accused of being religious zealots -- global warmists. But one of the advantages of religion is that it inspires people to acts of selflessness for the common good."

So writes John Tierney, who is rapidly turning into one of my favorite environmental writers. His mood ring concept is both godawful and brilliant, which is why I like it so much.

Tierney's impetus for suggesting mood rings comes from a recognition that we need to apply the lessons of social psychology and behavioral economics to climate maintenance. Conservation psychologists like Carol Saunders are very clear in their findings that when it comes to convincing someone to care about nature and the environment and take action, what other people are doing--the social norm--makes an enormous impact on individual behavior.

The mood ring wouldn't be a personal thing, that you would monitor in solitude the way you do your electric bill. The mood ring shows an individual how he or she stacks up against other people that he or she cares about. Am I ahead? Am I behind? Am I holding my own with the rest of my crowd, and blending in well with my peer group?

What do you think -- would you wear one? Could you convince your mom and your dentist and your mechanic and the coolest person at work to wear one?

John Tierney, "Are We Ready to Track Carbon Footprints?" New York Times, March 25, 2008

Are We Ready to Track Carbon Footprints? by John Tierney

Comments (5):

Geraldine commented, on April 9, 2008 at 10:24 a.m.:

Speaking of environmental writers, would you and other bloggers have suggestions for other great reads about nature and the environment?

Jill commented, on April 9, 2008 at 10:35 p.m.:

Heck, yeah.

Michael Pollan is a big favorite of mine -- check out his earliest book, Second Nature, all about lawn. Botany of Desire and Omnivore's Dilemma are also both excellent.

Reading Richard Preston's latest, Wild Trees, made me want so badly to buy climbing equipment and shinny to the top of the nearest cottonwood, the closest I could come in Chicago to the canopy of the redwoods Preston describes in that book. His first book, First Light, had a similar effect of making me want to stop everything I was doing and spend all my days and nights searching for comets.

I'm currently enamored with Gavin Pretor-Pinny's The Cloudspotter's Guide, and with his web site: check out http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org.

I'd love to hear other people's favorites.

the green mama commented, on April 10, 2008 at 3:40 p.m.:

First, Jill, I love the idea of a "green" mood ring. Although, some days mine would just be a tepid brown, the fact that I could aim to make it really shine emerald would inspire me to "Turn off that light!" or "Take the bus!" Also, what a nice way to get the message across rather than brow-beating everyone with what they should, could, had better do.

And Geraldine--THANK YOU for giving me an excuse to write about books that I love. My whole list of nature/environment books would give me cramps to type out, but I can't resist some suggestions (probably too many). Note, that some of my suggestions are nature writing, some are fiction, some are non-fiction, and some (of course!) are parenting in nature, but they all deal beautifully with issues of the environment and how to live in this world.

On the more creative end....
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood by Sandra Steingraber

and of course Thoreau and Emerson are great to read too!

On the more academic end...
Home Economics by Wendell Berry
Anything by David Orr, William McDonough, Paul Hawkens, Amory Lovins (e.g. Natural Capitalism by the latter two and Earth in Mind by Orr)
Valuing the Earth by Daly and Townsend, ed
State of the World, put out every year by The Worldwatch Institute.
Ecological Design by Van der Ryn and Cowan
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (as an example of one of the first eco-texts)

Want to talk more about any of these books or others?

Jill commented, on April 13, 2008 at 9:23 p.m.:

Have you actually read Thoreau lately?

I reread Walden a year and a half ago, in preparation for a class I was teaching. With a certain amount of chagrin, I realized I'd never read the entire text, only excerpts. And then I realized why. Thoreau spends page after page talking about the expenses of planting his bean crop and what he hopes to get out of it.

It reminded me of the Andy Warhol Diaries, where we have to read about about every cab receipt. I mean, once in a while Andy would talk about a party and who was there, but in general, the book was a slog through his expenditures.

Here are some of my local nature favorites:

Geology Underfoot in Illinois by Ray Wiggers
A Natural History of Chicago by Joel Greenberg
Sacred Sands by Ron Engel
Reading the Midwestern Landscape by May Thielgaard Watts
Plants of the Chicago Region by Floyd Swink and Gerould Wilhelm