The green gold rush

All the PR is starting to sound the same

Posted by David Roberts at 12:29 PM on 07 Sep 2007

Read more about: green living | environmental movement

As everyone with a pulse knows at this point, green is hot. Everybody wants a piece of it. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a new green website.

Consequently, your trusty blog author is bombarded with roughly five kerjillion press releases a day. And that's a conservative estimate.

What's more, the PR releases are starting to sound more and more alike. Let me excerpt two I got just in the last day. One begins:

Hi David,

Have you noticed that going green is the "new black?" Helping to save the environment was once reserved solely for activists, but as it becomes easier to participate in green causes, celebrities and consumers alike are joining the environmental cause. If you're not quite sure what you can do without completely altering your lifestyle, here's an easy and fun way to begin your journey: create a short video.

HOLY SMOKES, ARE YOU TELLING ME GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK!?!?

Funny. Here's another one:

Hi - Here's a great story about a new American Phenomenon - Green Guilt!

As you know many Americans are embracing the new "green revolution." But in reality most of us still drive trucks or SUVs, forget to recycle and have no idea what's in our food. BUT - we are embarrassed to admit it because not being green is such a faux pas. In reality it's hard to practice what you preach and people are experiencing a new American phenomenon... GREEN GUILT!!!

Now a new website lets people confess their "eco-sins."

These two sound exactly -- and I mean exactly -- like probably two dozen other PR emails I've gotten in the last few months. Suffice to say, if you want to be green but don't want to inconvenience yourself, your options on the internet are legion. I can think of about 10 sites off the top of my head that are happy to accept, e.g., your short video.

To make a semi-serious point: it would be easy to look at all this stuff and mock the shallowness, the obsession with "easy" things that you can do. But mocking does not make friends. It certainly doesn't make a movement. It's worth remembering that for those not schooled in the minutiae of climate, it is genuinely hard to figure out how to make a meaningful individual contribution, especially since most people are already overwhelmed with the workaday obligations of work, family, etc.

We need to figure out a way to channel all this interest, to make it deeper and enduring. Raining contempt down on our fellow citizens, savaging every small and imperfect attempt they make, does not strike me as an apt means to that end.

A little friendly ribbing though ...

For story: The green gold rush
6 Comments | Post a Comment

Green Bullies

Will Denialist kids get beat up on the way home from school?

by jabailo at 12:54 PM on 07 Sep 2007

"overwhelmed"

You are of course right, dear DR, to exhort us to refrain from mockery, and instead to feel compassion for all those who are "overwhelmed with the workaday obligations ... "

But in that connexion, we give some clear direction to the movement by reflecting on why that state of overwhelmedness is so inescapable a part of life in this society of ours. Without mocking or assailing individuals, we need at least a few radical thinkers to consider the destructive limitations of the life that we all as a society acquiescently go along with living.

Remember, for example, the recent brilliant essays by Curtis White in Orion. We need people to think like that.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 1:12 PM on 07 Sep 2007

The gentleness conundrum

Most of us able to access and read this blog live in a culture where consumption of products is what's supposed to make us feel whole. We've grown up as the targets of marketing and, of course, we've responded to much of it by purchasing what we're supposed to. Shopping has become our security blanket and now we must be gentle with people while they slowly wean themselves from their habits.

I only wish the progression of climate change would slow down a bit to give us time for everyone to catch up.

by precipice at 2:01 PM on 07 Sep 2007

shopping

Well, at this moment I wear the same conspicuous-consumption sandals that Corey McKcrill ("What's in his shopping cart?") is sporting up in the top left corner of the page.

by odograph at 2:50 PM on 07 Sep 2007

Figuring out a way

I sort of thought the article started well, but then when it got really interesting it was over.

Where are the ideas for figuring out a way?

Here are my thoughts: We have to teach the children what is wrong with the behavior of their parents and grand parents. Many if not most Middle School kids I know have the amazing attitude that they can still change the world. They are still optimists. I want to channel this energy by getting them excited about becoming their parent's teachers.

It won`t be easy. The members of those children's parent`s and especially grand-parent's generation seem to think that nothing wrong is going on and that what they waited to happen during their retirement is well deserved. At the same time the kids are indoctrinated with the same nonsense (=the younger generation will have it better) while taking part in the fun stuff their parents do.

There are ways to make meaningful contributions to pollute less. That is why I created my website this summer. It even includes the ribbing, although I do not know how friendly it is perceived.

Nevertheless, the changes that are meaningful are VERY hard to do if your parents do not support you. This is a capitalistic society and choosing to participate in consuming much less moves you to the fringes. That is difficult for any one.

Hopefully, after everyone currently older than 13 has died, positive behavior and habits will be wide spread. Too late? No choice.

Karsten PolluteLessDotCom

by PolluteLessDotCom at 2:01 PM on 08 Sep 2007

A thought towards a solution

I think that the tenor of the above postings is laudable. Each and every poster has shown genuine consideration for the plight of those people who currently consider environmental problems a moderate to significant priority.

Indeed, The key to moving this up the list of priorities is rightly to cut away at the sense of hopelessness felt by these consumer-culture worriers, while at the same time highlighting the long-term necessity of behavior change.

To do this, we need only take a page from the marketers' books: control the message. We must remain vigilant in demanding that companies, government bodies, and yes, even celebrities be public about the impacts of their activities.

We can do this by working with corporate oversight groups like Co-op America, Boston College's Center for Corporate Citizenship and CERES. The key will be to use sources like Grist and other social information sources to share and interpret the information companies present and then share it with our less keyed-in friends.

We can ensure that people have a way to make sense of what's going down in those big smokestacks on the edge of town, and what of that smoke winds up in that cheeseburger they're spreading ketchup and tabasco sauce on.

by juddfranklin at 10:21 PM on 08 Sep 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

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