I'm reading The Social Atom today, which may be the most infuriating book I've ever agreed with. (The author is blogging on the book here.) The infuriations are pretty deep in the weeds of my own interests. At its core, though, the book is similar to Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point in looking at how decisions tend to be made socially. A key part of this is, of course, how people look to the others around them to decide what to do. When enough others are doing something, suddenly everyone decides to do it--it's tipped.
In the made-up world of how I think things work, one problem with tipping points (unexplored in Gladwell's book and The Social Atom) is in that phrase from above "how people look to others." In The Social Atom (as the name may suggest if you're up on your particle physics), the author is pressed to show us how non-unique we all are, and there's a tendency to lapse into a locational sense of "others"--a presumption that other people are those physically near you. (This is not an explicit thing, but just a way that there's bleed-over from the author's explanatory metaphors of magnetic fields.)
Action on global warming, though, casts a different light on this, I think. The majority of Americans believe in some kind of environmentalism, and the majority of Americans believe in taking action on global warming. Many Americans, however, don't like most environmentalists. Unfairly, to my mind, they see us as against too much--anti-growth, anti-good times, anti-whatever. Not all, of course, but I think a large chunk, and probably enough in a mild way to make environmentalism somewhat problematic in getting things done.
The problem this points up is that I think there's a tendency among many people to not look at committed environmentalists as peers--the others to whom you turn to decide what to do. Which is why we get so excited when news of big cross-overs come out--a DuPont, a pro-environment union, or an outdoors group (i.e., hunters).
And so all of that is to say: it's heartening to see smart energy getting press alongside economic development and in-town revitalization in today's SJR story on Connor Co., a plumbing wholesaler, building a new distribution center at Ninth and Grand. Urban-form-wise, I think their building leaves a little to be desired (although its site doesn't really call out for much more), but you've got to be happy to see geothermal, radiant floor heating, and energy efficient lighting.
Connor is the second major development project in Springfield to use geothermal (at least, as has been in the news)--the first was the new Illinois Municipal Electric Agency Building (which, sadly, picked a much worse location). And with the news that the new park is looking at greener strategies, as is H.D. Smith, we might be seeing the sudden blossoming of a green building movement in Springfield.
ALSO: Sadly sudden environmental consciousness syndrome isn't the only tipping point to be concerned about. Grist explains.