AND NOW, AFTER THE ELECTION

We have a new president who pledged to invest billions of dollars in renewable energy sources, create millions of “green jobs” and propose legislation to sharply cut our greenhouse gas emissions. The environment, in fact, was front and center in the presidential race at a time such weighty issues as global warming and clean energy are at stake.

But now that you voted, is there more to do than just wait to see those campaign promises materialize?

Going green is not just about shopping or reprogramming your thermostat to save energy, many environmental leaders note. It is, more crucially, they say, about collective action to push elected officials toward greener policies. These experts advise people to take the extra step of joining organizations fighting for environmental causes they feel strongly about or sending emails to their local politicians, as I discuss in Chapter 10 of Green Wedding. People, they say, can also go online to add their names to petitions and letter writing campaigns.

After the excitement generated by the 2008 presidential election, many voters are unlikely to just sit on their hands waiting for change to come to them. Like couples planning green weddings, more and more of them seem eager to change their own ways