When large corporations pronounce themselves as "Green!" or animal/Earth conscious for the month... I don't believe them. I'm also not automatically convinced when individuals do the same thing.
"You shouldn't be running the faucet like that, you'll hurt the environment." One man told me as he was guzzling his third or fourth plastic bottle of water for the morning.
"I've become a vegetarian because we don't need to harm animals to maintain our way of life." One woman told me as I was eying what appeared to be genuine leather shoes on her feet.
I believe people like to say things about "helping the environment/animals" because they think it makes them look good, and it lets them feel better about themselves. I wonder why corporations would do something called "Green Week". What happens the other 51 weeks of the year? Is this a fad? Only something to try on before Green Fatigue sets in? Do they actually change some of their practices in order to be more "green"?
These are exactly the same questions I ask of people when they broadcast their intent to be environmentally friendly. If they care about the rainforests but still contribute to the massive consumption of paper goods, how is that helpful? How does a health guru who promotes drinking only the "special" water that they sell in 16 oz. disposable plastic bottles do everyone a courtesy by contributing to the giant plastic continent growing in the Pacific Ocean? What are some of the justifications a person makes for not eating a bucket of KFC chicken due to what they believe are animal rights abuses, but they blindly eat eggs from that same maltreated animal?
What about people who care more about their environmental or animal rights cause then fellow humans who happen to be marginalized in some way? Is it not counterproductive to ignore the plight of less fortunate people for the sake of maintaining the appearance of really caring about trees/chickens/toxic waste? In this mostly industrialized world, many of the issues we have with disappearing forests, toxic waste disposal, and treatment of animals directly intersects with privilege. There is a line that starts to appear between those that "have" and those that don't. For example, as a privileged person, I do not have to live in the same place that my waste is stored. I can either pay for someone to take it away, or someone will automatically clean it up for me in the public places that I frequent. For privileged people, that's where the line of awareness ends. They don't know who is doing the cleaning, and where the final storage place will be.
And yet, with our detachment from the environment, as we're reshaping and altering it with our actions, we are the first ones to dictate what it means to be be "environmentally conscious". How oxymoronic are we?
I heard something on NPR that ties into this. That is that "being Green" and "environmentally conscious" and other buzzwords people throw around, is the new way of informing people of your affluence. With a declining economy, people begin to feel a little strange flaunting name brands and such when much of the population is having a difficult time making ends meet. So they turn to some other means of flaunting, which is feigning that they care deeply about animals or the environment. But they can't stop there - they have to tell you about it so you will know that they're willing to bear the financial burden to be so "green" and awesome.
ReplyDelete"What about people who care more about their environmental or animal rights cause then fellow humans who happen to be marginalized in some way?"
Seconded. Seriously. I'm gonna need for people to be "ethically raised" before the meat they consume is "ethically raised."
VintageLux,
ReplyDeleteYep, humans have always found way to flaunt their affluence. Through clothing, jewelry, self-righteous piety, food, animals, and even other people, we receive and broadcast indicators of our wealth everyday.