If only more people would have followed Patagonia's non-partisan lead in 2004 as they encouraged everyone to vote the environment. Perhaps there would be more conviction in Congress today to place a high(er) priority on energy policy? And, perhaps, President Bush wouldn't be so confident in his threatened veto of whatever Congress eventually comes up with?

In yesterday's New York Times, op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman presented an updated version of Patagonia's 2004 slogan: Save the Planet: Vote Smart. In his editorial, Freidman put individual actions into perspective. His conclusion; the most significant individual choice any of us can make to improve the environment is in the voting booth:

People often ask: I want to get greener, what should I do? New light bulbs? A hybrid? A solar roof? Well, all of those things are helpful. But actually, the greenest thing you can do is this: Choose the right leaders. It is so much more important to change your leaders than change your light bulbs.

Why? Because leaders write the rules, set the standards and offer the tax incentives that drive market behavior across a whole city, state or country. Whatever any of us does individually matters a tiny bit. But when leaders change the rules, you get scale change across the whole marketplace. And the energy-climate challenge we face today is a huge scale problem. Without scale, all you have is a green hobby.

Now, I hate to think my blogging effort is just a green hobby, just as I feel strongly that the conservation measures my wife and I are making really do make a difference. But Friedman does have a point, and he backs it up with a fascinating tale of how the hybrid is taking over New York City's cab fleet — even though there's tremendous driver and consumer demand (now), the whole thing started with with a City Council vote to change existing laws to allow  hybrid taxis. Without a change in policy, nothing would have happened.

By my count, we've got a little over a year to figure out how to get the environment higher on the voters' agenda. We cannot afford another voting cycle going by without folks embracing one key thought: vote the environment.

Carbon Neutral Journal's choices are brought to you by Jorgensen Associates.

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