Being "green" is popular these days, but did you know that about 10% of the population don't care a whit about the environment?
Here's an interesting article by Jim Edwards for Brandweek about the "Never Greens":
Link - via BuzzFeedThe Never Greens don't buy green products, don't remember green advertising when they see it and are irritated by it even if they do, according to Mintel.
Never Greens also showed up in a survey by Shelton Group, an ad agency for BP Solar, the oil giant's renewable unit. About 26% of Americans are hardcore skeptics, according to Suzanne Shelton, the CEO of the Knoxville, Tenn., firm. They tend to be upper-income, middle-aged, conservative males, she said.
On the one hand I drive an extended cab f-250 diesel pickup truck, and on the other hand I bought it second hand, thus saving the planet the environmental costs of having a new one created. (Every new vehicle, hybrid or not comes with a large eco-price tag attached as a result of it's manufacture.)
I own and drive a Semi Truck for a living, yet it's one of the most fuel efficient and least polluting vehicles ever to do the job.
I try to buy things which will last over things which are more disposable, and avoid restaurants where the food is served wrapped in plastic or paper.
In the end though, the only way to be really green, is to buy nothing. Stay home, buy nothing. Be green. (Misers like Ebenezer Scrooge were very "green" indeed I guess.)
Everything else has some eco-effect.
I recycle cans when possible (so glad the city we're moving to has a recycling program, my husband and I drink a LOT of soda), don't waste unnecessary water or energy, and try to make fewer trips in the car by getting most of my groceries at one place, one time a week (also good for my pocketbook).
But I'm not going to pay through the nose for bamboo floors (getting laminate because I have a baby), solar panels, or other fancy "green" stuff. Oh yeah, and I drive an SUV. When we have another kid I'm getting a bigger SUV (of the crossover variety. My current one is kinda small). You tree huggers can bite me :P
I'm a tree hugger, and if you're cute I'd be happy to bite you...and lick you...if you're not cute, then keep drinking soda...
I am someone who is green by relative convenience, to be perfectly honest. I think it's generally psychologically difficult to connect an empty glass bottle to melting ice caps or whatever, and that the environmental crisis is similarly abstract to most.
ASSHOLES
I drive a fuel efficient car because gas is expensive. If I ever win the lottery, I'll drive a hummer.
If you really want to change the world ban the use of Dihydrogen Monoxide. It's the number one green house gas in the atmosphere. Green's go first, stop using Dihydrogen Monoxide, be an example for the rest of us.
Well there's a big fat surprise.
Anyway, I do a lot of things better than I did 30 years ago. I don't change my own oil and dump the waste oil, even though it came out of the earth. We use CF bulb but not for the power savings as much as the long life. (longer life means less changing bulbs)
I refuse to by anything that has been recycled if I have another option. Recycled products are by far inferior to virgin material and we learned this the hard way at work. Landfills are more environmentally friendly and a lot more cost effective that recycling. The exception is plastics, glass and aluminum cans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onDbTL9DFpA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0mq9skLurY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfwE5y_GOIQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAu68OsFggw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5weG9IllCpo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ictpPrle3EQ
I know some of you green cult people are not going to listen, but I do expect that. The rest might learn something.
(note: P&T videos do use cuss words)
'Greens' assume 3 things...
1. Global warming is occurring. Or climate change or whatever...the definition is unclear.
2. Global warming/climate change is large Man-made.
3. Man can actually do anything about it.
The proof is meager for the first point which weakens points 2 and 3. And the 'solutions' proposed would basically reorder your life and guarantee that your children would be poorer and less free than you.
Kyoto is falling apart in Europe...China has little concern about environmental issues and somehow it's Americans who are at fault.
People will start being concerned when the politicians and pundits concerned about green issues start acting like there is a crisis. As it stands, 'dignitaries' like Al Gore still fly thousands of miles each year and continue to live in huge mansions.
Admit it....this is all about centralizing power and weakening the American way of life....nothing more.
Is being Green really just about giving up the ability to think for yourself - to research both sides of an argument and not letting someone else tell you what to believe?
The only reason companies go green is to make more "green."
At the risk of bragging, my family & I probably live a greener life than most, even though I'd fall into that dreaded "upper-income, middle-aged, conservative male" category. We do it because we know money doesn't grow on trees. We buy used cars rather than new because it costs less, and as Bruno pointed out above, new vehicles come with a hidden energy price tag that makes even the stingiest vehicle less of an energy-efficient choice than a 5-10 year old Suburban. We replace our vehicles only after the old ones have reached the point where it no longer makes economic sense to repair them. Whenever possible, I fix broken things rather than tossing/replacing them, keeping stuff out of landfills. We recycle unused stuff through rummage sales, thrift store donations, Craigslist, and Freecycle. We recycle what we can through our trash collector, and keep bugging them and the city council to expand the list of recyclable plastics, because I hate the thought of junk like that going into the landfill. We keep the windows open to keep the house comfortable rather than run the AC. We just replaced the 35 year old HVAC system in our house with an energy-efficient heat pump system because the ROI for the added cost of it had was less than a year.
I could go on, but won't. We do all that because we want to save money and discourage the current system that encourages planned obsolescence. I don't buy into the whole man-made global climate change bunk, but that doesn't mean I spurn technology that uses less; I'm all about efficiency because I'm a cheapskate.
There's a lot more to being green than saying you are. Most people who identify with the whole "green" movement would probably fail miserably under closer examination. Case in point, Algore. Biggest. Hypocrite. Ever.
As for advertising, I don't remember ANY advertising. Seriously, advertising doesn't work, on me at least. I watch Formula One. 20 ad banners with wheels. I couldn't tell you most of them. And those I DO remember, in most cases I couldn't tell you what they actually do.
There are other environmental consequences. Too much crap in the air causes health problems (mainly asthma and heart disease), and some people now have to stay indoors on days when the pollution index is high. Chemical fertilizer run-off from fields can cause weird algae growths in the oceans, which can lead to things like swimmer's itch after a swim at the beach. Putting lots of organic material (like food scraps and yard waste) into the landfill can cause excess leachate to get into the groundwater.
In certain areas, being green is cheaper in some ways. Our area has recycling for paper, cans, glass, and some plastics, as well as yard waste. The city will come around and pick up all those things for free. But if you want to toss everything in the garbage, it'll cost you; there's a limit on how many cans of garbage you can put out without having to pay extra.
So I can see why mainly rich people are the "Never Greens". If they're going to throw away money, though, I wish they'd literally do that... instead of spending it on things that don't break down.