The great thing about having a blog is the chance to occasionally write a post about something that just plain bugs me. I have something that is really staring to bug me about the going green movement and the anti-going green movement.
Millions of people understand that we have harmed our world through unchecked use of harmful chemicals, pesticides, hazardous waste, over consumption of non-renewable resources, build up of dangerous levels of greenhouse gases, and much more. We know we must act now to make better choices to help our environment and reduce the chances that our earth will become uninhabitable in just a few decades.
The green movement has become more mainstreamed into our society as the world's media has jumped on the bandwagon. There are hundreds of places to look to find out to become more green, whether you want to start slowly or if you want to tackle the more difficult ways to become green.
It seems that our major corporations have tried to prove that they are green by slapping every product they make with the green label. Greenwashing, the practice of making untrue claims of a product being green, is on the increase as some companies try to prove that they are politically correct and green without really doing what it takes to become so.
The average person tries to take in all of the green claims and green ads out there and probably feels somewhat confused or even overwhelmed. We are bombarded by car companies who state that their cars are green when no car can actually be green. Instead, one car might be greener than another car, but to say a car is green is just slick marketing. I wonder when a cigarette company will claim that their cigarette is green just because it has 2% less tar than the others and will smokers flock to that cigarette in the hope that their habit will be more accepted because they are smoking a "green cigarette"?
But, all of the above ramblings don't even touch the anger I have over this one. A high ranking official of one of the companies chosen as one of the worst 10 companies said "carbon dioxide -- also the gas that humans breathe out -- isn't a contributor to global warming because if it were", he rationalized, "the government would have to ask us all to stop breathing." Nobody is saying that humans should stop breathing. What we are trying to tell people is that we have added higher levels of CO2 through this unchecked and unregulated use of unacceptable methods of building, transporting, and manufacturing. These higher levels of gases have placed our planet into peril and we need to better regulate the way we do these things.
Another anti-green spokesman says that the green living movement wants to do nothing else but force the world to return to the dark ages and that the green movement is our governments way of forcing socialism on us through what he calls eco-fascism. He says "the eco-fascist cult, are at their core very similar. In essence they demand mindless obedience, anti-Western orthodoxies, hatred of freedom and the market, and a commitment to lie, distort, pervert reality and facts. They are also primitive, violent and arrogant."
I will agree that there are some people who are fanatical and would love nothing more than to see the world return to a time unlike any we have seen in hundreds of years. That is no different than the fact that every religion of the world has its fanatical wackos, every company has its fanatical weirdos, and every other organization has people who go to extremes to prove their point. The fact also exists that each of these groups have a much larger group of people who are level headed and as normal as you and I.
The green movement is no different. We just want to see less use of harmful products and more use of methods that will help our environment but we would all love to see our thoroughly modern world continue to exist and get even more technologically advanced. A true green believer wants to do their part and hope that others will do theirs. If it takes legislation to ensure that some of the more polluting companies clean their act up then it is fine but nobody wants to micro-manage these companies. It is possible for these companies to quit damaging the Earth at an alarming rate but they can stay in business. No true green believer wants to see these people lose their livelihood. Only the fanatics would wish that on anyone and I do not consider the fanatics to be true green believers.
This is my belief and you might disagree with it. Fine. If you do, please write a response and send it to bruce@bruzzbuzz.com and I will post it here. I really do believe that both sides need to be heard in order to ensure that we succeed in saving our planet.
