How green are you? How green is anyone?
April 3rd, 2008 |Do you use compact florescent bulbs?
Do you use paper cups at Starbucks or do you bring your own mug?
Do you bring you own bag when you go to the grocery store?
Do you even think about this stuff on a daily basis?
Do you think that this whole “green movement” is just another scam that some groups are using to drive an agenda that may have nothing to do with, and have no effect on, the environment?
Do you think that business is getting on board the “green movement” in order to protect the environment or more as a public relations move?
Why do I feel like I am falling for someone’s marketing campaign?
I was visiting a bicycle distributor last week and noticed the amount of products that they had arriving at the loading dock. Tires, tubes, chains, cassettes, bar tape, etc. Massive amounts of brand new stuff wrapped up nice and ready to sell.
Where do all the old tires and tubes and chains and cassettes and bar tape and packaging material go?
Add this distributor to all the distributors in the bicycle industry. Add the bicycle industry to all industry.
What percentage of the stuff that we “consume” gets recycled? Where does the rest go?
Are we making any difference at all?
Does any of this matter?
I don’t feel very important today.
17 Responses to “How green are you? How green is anyone?”
A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. I read that one a few more. Really enjoy your blog. Thanks.
Jason Whitmen
More and more I have been. That is, thinking about this sort of stuff on a regular basis. I do think I can make a difference. Of course one’s efforts appear to pale in comparrison to the amount of waste and crap generated by our lot, but I take solace in knowing I strive to do the right thing (environmentally speaking) rather than simply what’s convenient. Be the change you wish to see sort of shit.
As for the marketing, I too believe that business (to varying degrees) works this angle like any other. Right now green is popular and there are those who’ll market the crap out of it to sell more widgets. I really dislike duplicity and if the environment was truly a #1 priority, there’d be a .org at the end of that URL and non-profit would be an applicable descriptor.
Still, if some good comes from business jumping on the green bandwagon for a while who’s to complain?
if some good comes from business jumping on the green bandwagon for a while who’s to complain?
If no good comes than I am going to complain.
Where do all the old tires and tubes and chains and cassettes and bar tape and packaging material go?
You obviously have never met the Little Guy.
I had a vegan pancake today. That must count for something.
Heard on the morning MPR program that 96 BILLION tons of food are WASTED in this country every year. Maybe before we jump on the green wagon, we should figure out a way to stop this obscene waste when so many go hunger every day right here in the old U S of a.
You should try belonging to the restaurant industry. Talk about waste. Waste paper, waste plastic, waste oil, waste gas, waste electricity, waste space just to entertain.
We do what we can where we can but I feel inconsiquential(sp) mostly.
I’m gonna buy me a green Escalade, a sustainable wide screen Hi-Def TV, and an organic call girl.
Business & “green”; almost pure PR moves, I’m convinced. Otherwise, why don’t we hear about a real comparison of the pollution caused by, say, CF bulbs vs. that of regular incandescents? Why not turn of needless lights ALL the time, instead of just during “Earth Hour” or whatever PR stunt they just pulled?
Don’t get me wrong. Personally, I’ve got about 45 CF bulbs in my home, choose vehicles for efficiency, insulate, ride my bike–whatever makes sense, really, after a bit of analysis. I just have trouble listening to companies that buy private jets and BMWs (700 series, not 300) for their executives tell me about how much they “care” about the environment.
Or, for that matter, I have trouble taking it when government does the same, for about the same reasons.
… and I have trouble listening to blowhard former politicians who think that buying “carbon credits” to compensate for jetsetting in their Lears all over the world to speaking engagements is ‘environmentally friendly’.
if they were really concerned, they’d do said speaking engagements via teleconference so that they don’t have to burn that fuel in the process (reduce consumption rather than offsetting).
What do conservatives actually conserve?
Not sure which distributor you were visiting, but Q goes above and beyond to make a difference.
yes’ the ‘green campaign’ is a scam for the most part, i do my part when it’s easy, like garbage sorting,lightbulbs, energy conservation to a degree, but really making the investment to go totally ‘green’ is alot to ask my family to get on board with if i was single and could convert to solar and take cold showers and basically re-design my way of life i would… but biking 2 children around is not time feasible, neither is low carbon cooking or sustainable gardening with the shady lot that i have.
i see the best solution is an actual green campaign similar to government rationing conservation in the years 1942-1945 what about the war against the upcoming environmental collapse.
go green or die and put into concentration camps those who violate the new order, gestapo tactics for desparate times sucka…. i’m jumping on the green shirts revolution or i’m going to die with the rest of the hummer driving mfers…
see what you made me do… now i’m staging a crystal nacht at all the car dealerships along the 494 strip and busting up mall of america, it’s gonna be a ‘cultural revolution’ chairman green
that’s bloodlineglobal.blogspot.com
One of the biggest things individual folk can do for the environment is eat less meat. I’m not saying one has to be vegetarian or vegan, but cut back a bit. Also, eat “more sustainable” meat, i.e. less factory farmed meats, which tend to use more fossil fuels (a lot of fossil fuels to make corn, which is fed to factory animals).
less factory farmed meats
But I like me hot dogs with Cheez Whiz.
i’ll hook you up with a local producer of sausages, not hotdogs i know but yummy encased meats with less lips and assholes and cheez wiz is more wiz than cheese