tone change for the majority voice?

I wish I could agree with Maniates' assertions that as a nation, "we're grown-ups who understand the necessity of hard work and difficult choices" but unfortunately I don't think that's a truth that can be applied across the board in American society. Sure we believe in bold possibilities for the future and want to make a difference, but the snag is that this difference isn't going to be pursued if it's not of personal interest to a significant portion of people. Most "grown-ups" in this country understand the necessity of hard work as it applies to achievement and profit gain-- not the hard work of lessening their consumption or difficult choices between an affluent lifestyle and saving the planet. The real inconvenient truth to all of this is that we are and will continue to be a consumer nation above all else. Yes, we iconize MLK, Roosevelt and other leaders with abilities to speak frankly on hard topics BUT we also iconize the quick fix, and easy way out (hence the popularity and glorification of enviro self-help books like Maniates mentions) maybe now more than ever. But the icing on this is that with an alpha, capitalist mindset we're prone to believing there's a solution for everything and that eventually we'll develop the technologies to solve the current crisis of environmental degradation-- no problem. It seems we're just too good for our own good and consequently, for the sake of our planet.

So in terms of moving forward in this "vexing, knotty" issue of environmentalizing an entire nation, we must first move past the predicament of self-interest. This is not to say I don't agree that there are people in our society who legitimately seek ways to confront the planetary emergency at hand or that the greening movement is a waste of time, but rather that we need better champions to this if we're going to change tone and convince certain Americans that it takes more than recycling and fancy lightbulbs to save the planet for future generations.