No, I’m not calling out a militia of bedraggled treehuggers. I’m letting our artistically minded readers and listeners know about what I think is a truly inspired project to mobilize and motivate citizens. More to the point, it points out our willingness in the past to take small actions to serve the greater good.  It’s called Green Patriot Posters, and it’s the brainchild of The Canary Project, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that describes its “canary in a coal mine” mission this way:

The Canary Project produces visual media, events, and artwork that build public understanding of human-induced climate change and energize commitment to solutions.

The idea behind “Green Patriot” is to create posters that tap into the ethos of World War II: posters that asked citizens to conserve fuel by traveling less and wearing sweaters indoors, plant victory gardens, recycle, and reuse.  The images were of vibrant, healthy, attractive and ostensibly patriotic men and women, and the messages were simple calls to action.  Green Patriot’s creators say we’re facing just such a crisis as World War II in global warming and other environmental threats now.  We mobilized and motivated huge numbers of citizens to pitch in the fight 70 years ago.  Why not now?

If you’re so inclined, design a new poster, or check out the “inspire” section of the Web site for those World War II images.  It’s surprising how prescient their messages seem now.

- by Kristin Espeland Gourlay

Images from greenpatriotposters.org