Odd that so many people are tring to go Green, when the very people that started the following are corporations that reley on you " going green" so they can slap their " green" sticker on merchandise that you’ll buy, while they export over seas and wreck havoc on the enviroment while using the local citizens of their host country as a near slave labor force.
but as long as you keep your eyes close to the rest of the world, you can feel like your doing the right thing.
my feeling is that people think that spending gobs of money on "going green" by being organic and reducing their carbon footprint is pretty silly. Doing you part to recycle, RE-USE, and reduce the amount of waste you produce is the best way to be green. buying $35,000 hybrid cars only makes the automakers rich. I had a 1991 gasoline vw jetta that got 40+ mpg and when i bought it, it cost me 1500$. I think the idea should be living with less and making more of what you have. Look at native american and indeginous people, the use every part or every animal, plant and resource they use. No waste, not less waste.
Other than trying to get off foregin oil, YES it is a big scam. It is an attempt to force everyone to join the collective.
Wow, are you deluded.
Corporations didn’t start anything green. They only responded to it. A corporation wouldn’t lift one finger to make any green products until they were sure there was a demand, and it was profitable.
And things with a green "sticker" slapped on it are not necessarily green. You have to think for yourself, and not rely on marketers to pull you along by your nose. Those stickers are entirely self (profit) serving.
Actually going green means consuming LESS. Not MORE. Even if some marketing exec tells you to buy his product because it’s "green".
The whole green movement was started by hippies in the 70s. Whom I’m sure you despise anyway.
I refuse to buy all 100% post consumer recycled paper, not because it is bad for the environment, nor because it is a scam, but because we have driven its price well beyond reason, to cost even more than 100% new paper. When we recycle paper we are not incurring more cost unless there is so much extra energy used to collect it that it is impractical. We can not run the whole economy on 100% recycled stuff.
Spending extra to promote recycling as a political statement is ok for a politician. It is even ok for the city that is making money on sale of recycling paper.
For my own part, I save money by being green and I do not accept elevated prices without a benefit. I want to encourage green manufacture and sales to compete economically too.
I’m so glad you posted this question!!
I think corporations ARE jumping on the green bandwagon and playing on people’s consumeristic instincts. It drives me nuts!!
People should really be thinking about making things even simpler. For my kids I made cloth reusable nappies out of stuff I had lying around the house – they looked just like disposables, but much funkier. And worked better than bought reusables (that are made in China). Cost me $30 all up for 2 years’ worth of nappies.
Bottled green cleaning products? You don’t need them!! Just more packaging and transport to get them to you.
In saying that though there are some companies that will hopefully grow and become cheaper with time. e.g. I’m not ready to make my own recycled unbleached toilet paper yet, so am glad someone else is doing it. Bamboo and hemp fabrics will hopefully get cheaper over time as more people take them up.
It’s a double edged sword at the moment and people still really have to think about what they’re buying.
There’s a difference between green living and a lifestyle that is good for the environment. Green living is like you said, just a marketing scam used by businesses to relieve people of all of the guilt caused by environmentalists and phonies like Al Gore by making a large profit.
I remember seeing a commercial for a large white Cadillac SUV in the middle of an innocent fair-tail forest that was supposedly "green" just because it was a hybrid. I can’t tell you how many ways this bad to the eyes of actual environmentalists.
The actual lifestyle that is truly "environmentally-friendly" strives to relieve what scientists refer to as an "ecological-footprint". This footprint measures a person’s impact on whatever given ecosystems, usually the biosphere as a whole.
What proves that "green living" is a marketing scam is that in order to reduce your ecological footprint significantly enough to leave your children and nature with a sustainable biosphere, you must buy virtually nothing made out of synthetically-altered materials and takes as little of them to fuel the process. This means no water bottles at all, which proves that Deer Park’s new "eco" bottle isn’t eco at all.
This is why some of the most truly environmentally friendly people are actually cheapskates, because they are responsible for less mining, pollution, waste, and deforestation, simple by being too cheap to buy unnecessarily marked up items like 16oz. bottles of water.
That’s not going green, but being a corporate pawn. Going green to me is not buying !"%$ i don’t need, but which might be fashionable. Instead its using what I have to fill the needs I have or buying quality products that will last much longer than the green stuff those companies are trying to sell. You are just as much a pawn by being content to buy the regular junk they sell. Those who are truly going green are the ones who are avoiding the ultimate scam.
It’s cynical people like you that have never inspired change in humankind. No good has ever come from verbally attacking people to get them to see your point of view. YES – corporations use slave labor for ‘green’ products. YES – most consumers these days will buy things with cute little ‘green’ stickers. YES – We are killing this planet so quickly, our grandchildren will have to suffer greatly for it. Bottom line – It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. 10 Years ago…did you ever hear ‘going green’? NO. And because it was NOT profitable at the time. This is the problem with Capitolism…but that’s a different topic all together. One has to pick and choose which battles to fight and when they can be won. You wanna fight global poverty or global warming? Unfortunatly, humans very rarely have the stamina to address two huge problems at once.
A person is smart…PEOPLE are dumb, panicky animals.
Well said. as long as people buy thirty thousand dollar hybrid cars and drink five dollar cups of coffee form Starbucks because the coffee is 5% free trade. And lots of other little sitpid things that make them feel better about themselves. They can keep being led along by the corporations and spending money on " Green " products and makeing the corporations rich while the corporations destroy the earth.
There is a difference between those people trying to follow the fad and those of us who are trying to live a lifestyle. I strive to live a sustainable life, I am aware of how my choices affect the earth. I buy local and organic for the majority of my food. I don’t fall for the green washing hype. Most of the products I use are very basic and natural, I use a natural soap, baking soda and vinegar for almost all my cleaning needs.
We are a consumer nation, I strive to help people become aware of what is really green and what is media hype. I consume less, I use less and I waste less, I have more natural and healthier products and food in my home, so I don’t think I’m doing the right thing, I know I am. I am also aware of where I can improve and will continue to working toward my goal of reducing my negative impact on the world, while living a typical American life.