Being green: National conversation on environment is picking up steam

[DeepModem Mom]

CNNMoney/Fortune: Be green - everybody's doing it
Politicians, big business, moms and pops - the national conversation is picking up steam.
By Adam Lashinsky, Fortune senior writer
July 13 2006

San Francisco (Fortune) -- Eco-consciousness appears to be hitting the mainstream. For years, it was only the truly committed, the painfully hip and the guiltily ashamed who were willing to stand up in public and say they were willing to do something for the environment.

Now environmentalism has gone way beyond the sandal-ista crowd. We just may be entering a time when everyone from average individuals to giant corporations to politicians of all ideologies agree that the evidence of environmental degradation is so overwhelming that it's finally time to act....

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Judging from the conversations on panels and in hallways at Fortune's Brainstorm conference in Aspen, Colo. just before the July 4th holiday, the conversation is picking up steam....

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This is an issue that is anything but neat and tidy; even people who call themselves environmentalists aren't in lockstep. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, for example, is a big proponent of forward-thinking ethanol technology. Lester Brown, a noted environmentalist, would far prefer to see the country focusing on wind power. They clashed in Aspen.

The point isn't the disagreements, however. The point is how much activity is coalescing around the need to do something to ensure the planet's future....

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/12/news/economy/pluggedin_lashinsky.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes