Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well to tell you the true I've had to actully simulate what to say to a person that doesn't think much of world issues for my Envp155 class so we've been hit with all of this. My parents don't exactly care about the environment either but they don't hate it or think its stupid! The best advice I can give you is that your opinion and your thoughts count because you are your own spirit! Everyone deserves an opinion and deserves to have a say in anything that has to do with our earth, so I say that if she doesn't care then let her not care, it doesn't hurt you as a person.

Hmm.... Welp you can try to let her know that it raises her electric bill, she could save money, plus it's helping save energy all together! If that doesn't work then maybe I can think of something else.

Ooh, awesome environmentally/socially etc. conscious bands? My favorite! Besides the aforementioned bands, all of which I am absolutely in love with, there's also Bikini Kill (Riot Grrl!), Antiproduct (and awesome crust band, their lyrics are seriously ******** awesome), Adhamh Roland (an awesome trans guy whom I've met before http://www.riotfolk.revolt.org/member.php?id=5), Rage Against the Machine, and a hip-hop band with a mazing lyrics that I just recently discovered, Immortal Technique. I also like a lot of Garbage's lyrics, and Loreena Mckennitt has very nature-spiritual lyrics (I don't have any eclectical music tastes, no, never...). A lot of bands also aren't mainly political, but definetely put a stand out there, in some or many of their songs.. I just started listening to Otep, and their song "Menocide" hits it hard. Another one of said bands is Disturbed, with their political/social commentary in Believe, growing even stronger in Ten Thousand Fists, an album which was a call for their fans to unite together and stand up. Really, if you guys haven't listened to some of these bands....check them out! ^O^

I also listen to many bands which don't have such lyrics, but find their music has meaning to me. Like Korn, who is to busy dreaming about sex to make political lyrics (ok...perhaps that one was bad...)

Yeah there is a lot of good stuff out there! You know riku, maybe giving your mom some music that explains things, it might work......But anyways many great bands that just explain human interaction with nature and other humans! Good stuff!

Money. Money is an incentive for adults. Tell her that if not for the sake of the environment, then for her own sake on the energy bill, do stuff like get a timer for the hot water heater, turn the heater down, turn off lights, etc...

I know exactly how it feels--my parents are not terribly receptive at times either. My mom was raised by her grandmother, and sort of has a Depression-era mind set: money is what matters. Anything that is slightly more expensive is frivolous. I know that many people who grew up poor have the opposite reaction of my mother, and want to show off their wealth when they become successful, so it kind of depends on what you're going for. But I agree with ghstphantom3 that money is often the key.

What you have to do is relate it to her own experience. Show her that being wasteful is BAD, not just for fuzzy animals in the rainforest, but for you, herself, everybody. I know a lot of my friends will tune out if I rant about CO2 emissions or whatevs, but if I talk about how global warming will affect OUR town, the snowboarding in this place, things that matter to them, it makes an impression.

Don't give up! My family has slowly gotten greener with my constant pressure. Though now my dad calls me the "eco-cop" . . . xd

Hmm...I seem to have the same problem, my parents simply don't care.

I've found ways though to further my green goals, whenever it comes to lightbulbs I inform my parents in a subtle sort of way about how much money that could be saved in terms of electricity if all these pesky energy draining bulbs were replaced with something that saved money.

That's always what I do, I always lure them in with the money aspect, that really gets to them.

It's tough though when it comes to my father, I don't think he even believes in global warming or other environmental issues where my mom is more neutral, he's also one of the worst spenders I've ever seen and never really thinks about money.

I don't know how to really deal with him, so I don't worry about it, just worry on convincing someone. It's gonna be hard whenever I cut beef off my diet, that guy's so obsessed with beef that he actually reads up on the histories of breed's of cattle.

Really the best solution would be to just handle the problem yourself if action is really desired, that's what I have to do.