As the general population becomes more aware of our environmental challenges and the emerging energy crisis certain words have become popular in the media.  Not too many years ago words like sustainable, green or renewable would bring snickers from people who thought the environmental movement and search for alternative energy sources were just hoaxes perpetuated by those with purely political agendas.  Not anymore.  Just about everywhere you look in media and advertising people are talking green and sustainability.

One unfortunate side effect of having meaningful words become marketing buzzwords is that what these words mean and represent is often lost in a barrage of advertising and shallow quasi-news reporting.

The words sustainable and sustainability are powerful words with meaning that reveals great wisdom for the future of humankind.  It is important that we preserve the power of these words to help us understand what we must do to provide a high quality of life in the years ahead.  It would be tragic to be seduced by the spin doctors that because we put a green or sustainable label on something that we are properly addressing our long-term challenges.

Problem:  Over the past 30 years Congress has been relaxing the laws that govern media companies that had been designed to ensure that they honored their responsibility to serve the public good.  One of these laws was the Fairness Doctrine which required media outlets that allowed political commentary to offer equal time to parties with opposing points of view.  This prevented access to the media being limited to those with large amounts of funding behind them.  These restrictions were enacted in recognition that media companies utilize public resources such as the public airwaves and therefore have a responsibility to serve the public fairly and equally.  The Fairness Doctrine has been eliminated and now the only parties that are able to afford media access are those backed by large amounts of money.  The average Congressperson has to raise about $2,000 a day the entire time they are in office to be able to purchase enough media time to have a chance of reelection.