Tuesday, December 7, 2010

No, you are not being green by purchasing that bag. You are being an idiot.

This is going to come off as one of those times where I sound arrogant, egotistical, and self righteous. Usually I try to restrict these traits, but this is too important to be humble over. Best case scenario - I make a lot of people mad, and they start to think about what I'm talking about. Worst case scenario - Apathy.

I had my last biology lab today, and our topic was on ecosystems, human impact on climate systems, the environment, and every other topic that you would expect to be coupled in there. Let me get this strait - there is a hell of a lot that I still want to learn. I'm a sophomore political science student who has only a basic knowledge of the science behind all of that, but I'd think that I'm at least well educated enough to differentiate between making a difference and making myself feel like I'm making a difference. In class we had a discussion about the most important issues regarding climate change, and how we can help to fix this issues. Alright, good start. Going around the room, we had people shout out things like "global warming", "climate change", and "desertification". All valid points. What I lament, however, is that no one seemed to buy into the theory that I proposed - that the basis of ALL of these problems is rampant population growth and overpopulation. This was met with little response, and we continued on our way. Fine by me, it's just a class. But then things started to concern me. We started talking about the ways that we can help the environment and pitch in to do "our part", and I finally all but lost it. Why? The responses that came from people were beyond concerning. Buy organic. Go green. Ride a bike. Buy a hybrid car. Use reusable grocery bags. We're dooming ourselves by keeping this attitude.

Wait, what?

At my last college I wrote a thesis about the dangers of greenwashing. Wikipedia (yes I'm citing it, deal with it. If you want to call me out for that then you aren't getting the bigger picture) defines this as "The deceptive use of green PR or green marketing in order to promote a misleading perception that a company's policies of products (such as goods and services) are environmentally friendly." To learn more about it, check out this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing. In order to better understand the issue I'm going to expand my interpretation of Greenwashing to include the marketing of products that actually do benefit the environment as well, because both practices lead to the same effect. You are being lied to. The new global craze of "green" may be the nail in the coffin if we don't stop it. Why? Think about it for a second. Everyone wants to help - I believe that at heart, people are generally good willed and want to try to help when they can. The extent to how much help we can provide, however, is debatable. We seek instant gratification for everything we do. We want to see the results of our work, because lets face it: What's the point of working for something without a definitive income?
Anyway, corporations latched onto the green fad and ran with it. Boy was that a smart decision. Believe me - the bottom goal of these companies is to make profit. Anyway who believes otherwise is wrong. This is because the goal of any firm is profit maximization. In fact, a corporation is legally obligated to maximize profits wherever possible; to do otherwise would essentially short change investors and shareholders of profits, which would in turn cause the corporation to lose support possible fail. But first, before I continue -

To every person that has every said "down with corporations!" - do you know what a corporation is? Here's a cheat sheet to basic business that I learned while in micro economics.

Firm: A business organization that employs resources to produce goods or services for profit. A firm normally owns and operates at least one “plant” or facility in order to produce.

Proprietorship: A business owned by one individual who makes the business decisions, receives all the profits, and is legally responsible for the debts of the firm.

Partnership: A business owned by tow or more joint owners, or partners, who share the responsibilities and the profits of the firm and are individually liable for tall the debts of the partnership.

Corporation:A legal entity that may conduct business in its own name just as an individual does; the owners of a corporation, called shareholders, own shares of the firm's profits and enjoy the protection of limited liability.

Corporations themselves are not some evil, corrupt entity. The people that run them might be, but the very structure of a corporation is not at fault. Simply put, the corporation exists be maximize profit, and this is what it is required to do. All of the talk you hear about corporate corruption is a result of owners trying to maximize profit and cut costs by immoral and illegal means. That's another part of economics that people forget. When we say maximize profit, we mean so in the legal sense. In this day in age it may be more profitable for companies to cut back on these back alley shortcuts, but that's a different story.

ANYWAY...

As I was saying, businesses were smart enough to pick up on the green fad, and I commend them for this. Any of us would have done that in their position - so says rational man theory. It's a smart move to, because it's obviously working for them. Sadly. it's not working for the environment. Consumers leave these stores with their green products thinking that they've made a difference. This, held relative to NOTHING ELSE, is good. But nothing is relative. In a larger context this becomes a problem because that gratification that people crave is fulfilled. People leave with the feeling that they've done their part for the earth, and that is exactly what businesses want them to feel. This is a huge problem because a lot of the concern for the earth stops there. We've somehow fallen under the false belief that if "we all do a few small things" then we will be able to make a difference. Those who believe this tend to underestimate how drastically fucked the entire planet is. As of now at least. Behold - graphs!


Tip of the iceberg.

These are things that nobody wants to hear. Going green, even as an entire country, will certainly lesson our impact, but our impact will still be massive beyond all comprehension. It just would happen to be slightly less massive. My point here is that society has the wrong idea about how to change things. Making a change here or there won't stop this. We should still do these things because they are right, and because we care for posterity (oh how I miss my Environmental Ethics class right now). Ultimately though, society itself needs to change.

What sort of change is needed is well beyond me. Seriously, how the hell would I know? Luckily, that's beyond my point. To assert a "solution" so all of this would be arrogant and egotistical, even more me. There is something, however, that I do know very well: Every revolution, whether political, cultural, social, or religious, started off with the spread of information. Our most difficult adversary is fear of information and the everyday ignorance that we currently face. There's no point in trying to find the solutions when a majority of the world's population doesn't understand the problems. I know in my heart that we have within us the capacity to combat misinformation. Perhaps I should retract my previous statement saying that it's useless for everyone to do their part. Perhaps everyone needs to do their part, but their part is to make every possible effort to educate themselves about what is happening. Before action can be taken we should work to come to a specific understanding. Go out and find this information: It's out there, waiting. Books. Documentaries. Observation. Discussion. The earth is begging for us to break out of our stupor. The phrase goes "ignorance is bliss", but it is at last time to find a different kind of bliss. Don't take anything told to you for granted. Fight Ignorance. Question Authority. Embrace Equality. To do your part is to question everything you've ever known, and to learn about these problems individually and independently. Where we go from there is uncertain, but perhaps the information we will soon learn will show us the way.


Summery: Don't be an idiot, go read books on climate change/population growth and educate yourself.

3 comments:

  1. As your graph so aptly describes only population control is the way to make true progress on the environmental front.
    Going "green" is fine but going without children or only one child makes the real difference. Overpopulation Insights

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  2. @Overpopulation thanks for the read! Makes me (or the 10 year in the future me) wish the adoption process was cheaper/easier.

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