Recently, the Governerator of California said that the problem with the environmental movement is that it was always scolding people to get them to live more consciously. He said that they needed to make Being Green – Sexy, and that’s what he’s done. That’s why it’s so popular now.

Well, I don’t know about his role in making environmentalism sexy, but Governor Schwarzenegger is right about a couple of things. First, scolding people doesn’t make them excited about changing how they behave. Second, Being Green has now become sexy, and not because Al Gore won an Oscar for his slide show. Mr. Gore is a nice guy, a bright guy and has been involved in sustainability issues for decades now. But he’s not the sex appeal on this issue…not even with an Oscar.

No, it’s Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s Cameron Diaz. Though neither are my type, both are pretty sexy. So, is this a good thing? Is it good to have Leonardo on the cover of the Vanity Fair Green Issue with a cute little polar bear? Is it good to have Cameron posing with her cute little hybrid car? Does the Hollywood media attention to global warming move the average person to change their ways?

Well, it has worked with lots of other lifestyle issues. When Clark Gable took off his shirt in It Happened One Night and revealed that he wasn’t wearing an undershirt, the sales of undershirts tanked. When Marlon Brando showed up in his undershirt in A Streetcar Named Desire, sales went up. Some of us remember how Farrah Fawcett on Charlie’s Angels changed the look of American women in the 1970s. An executive at a tobacco company was once quoted as saying, “A close-up of Winona Ryder smoking a cigarette is worth more to us than all the print ads we can buy.”  Where Hollywood goes, so goes the nation! Is that so?

While a movie star can move people to change their hair style or their underwear, can they really use their celebrity to get people to do more than make little changes in their lifestyles? Some of you may have seen the Living Green show on Oprah. Here was one of the most powerful trendsetters in the country devoting her entire show to chanting green slogans to her screaming fans. Of course, they screamed the loudest when Oprah’s people filed through the audience with green product give-aways. They love getting lots of free stuff.

Oprah seemed earnest and committed to encouraging people to do their part to combat the threat of global warming. It’s not hard, according to Oprah. You just have to go out and buy lots of green stuff. Of course, Oprah makes her billions by selling things, so you have to expect that she would put a consumer spin on environmental action. It’s what she knows.

In reality, Oprah would have had more positive impact on the environment if she had taken back all the cars she had given away previous shows. The combined carbon and pollution output of those cars far exceeds the benefits of all the free compact fluorescent bulbs she handed out on her Living Green show.

You see, if we are to do our part to combat climate change or to live more sustainably, we need to talk seriously about more than buying lots of green stuff or even changing our lifestyles. We need to talk about fundamentally changing how we live. We need to engage a redefined economy that is not based on consumption. We need to re-examine how we define “success” for businesses and for ourselves. We must re-envision our communities and how we relate to each other. We need to understand, at the most primary level, that we live on a finite planet with limited resources…and we cannot have it all.

These are not Hollywood messages…at least, not yet.

So, is being sexy a good thing for sustainability? Yes, it can be if it helps people understand that we have a big problem with solutions that may be within our reach if we act now. If it brings people together to have real conversations about issues…if it changes the composition of products and services in the marketplace…if it makes people think before they buy…if it gets people to look hard at their elected officials for leadership and not slogans… then perhaps being sexy can be a good thing. But remember, sexy doesn’t last very long. Either the allure fades with familiarity or the passion dies over time.

Sustainability is a very long affair. It must be measured in more than lifetimes or it fails.

Could being sexy hurt the move towards sustainability? Yes, it could. If people come to the issue with the wrong expectations, they will become easily disillusioned and lose interest. If people come to sustainability like guests to an Oprah Show, looking for free stuff and new ideas on what to buy, the movement will not last.

But, there is a place where a trend is occurring that may have very positive impacts. It may not be as sexy as Lenny & Cameron, but it could have nice long legs. Schools have picked up sustainability as a core component of their curricula. In Arizona, all three big universities have schools focused on sustainability and offer courses on sustainable development within other disciplines. Elementary and high schools are including environmental education and sustainability as part of their core classes. This is a very good thing.

It does not, however, absolve adults and businesses of their responsibilities to face what some have called the greatest challenge of our time. So, perhaps it won’t hurt too much if people listen to Oprah and Leonard and Cameron. Maybe, they’ll replace their light bulbs and recycle more. Maybe, they’ll get a hybrid instead of a Hummer. Maybe, they’ll begin to wonder why the USA, the world’s leader, is also the leader in pollution, war and waste.

Meanwhile, their children will be learning the hard lessons about what we need to do to bring the human race back from the brink of extinction. Maybe, a little conservation from their parents will give the children of the world the time they need to save themselves from our short-sightedness. Now that sounds like something that could make a good movie.