Post
Do The Green Thing
Lucky me, I got a colourful magazine through the letterbox yesterday morning. Far from putting a smile on my face however, it got me quite frustrated!
The magazine wasn't an environmental one, but a cultural one, with such a brief mention of 'going green' that one could have been forgiven for missing it entirely. But I didn't. What's more, a day later, it is still playing on my mind.
On the surface, 'Do the Green Thing's seven point plan to a greener life seems fairly innovative and, more importantly, practical. And so, it wasn't the aim, nor the message nor its delivery, which posed any problem. Rather, it was what it represents. Do we, with fewer than 70 days until COP15 really need to be told that gorging ourselves on meat, flying as though it were going out of fashion, and forever trying to keep up with the Jones' isn't doing us any favours?
And so, I question doing the 'green thing' and ask, isn't it about time we started doing the 'right thing'? Surely (she says tentatively if not a little naively) we have got past the stage of being green, simply because its fashionable. If 'going green' is a fad, rest assured, it will get binned along with tamagotchis and Spice Girls CDs, and soon be long gone.
Indeed, whatever the motivation, it is doing the so-called green acts which matters above all else, nevertheless, I firmly believe that we need a permanent incentive engraved on our minds, or else 'doing the green thing' will be old news, even before December 7th arrives.
Comments
A good one, thanks Lara. To be fair, The Green Thing was innovative when it arrived. It is creative, provoking, and even funny, to an extent. But I agree with you, it is time to go further from thinking how /not/ cool it is to be green, and do the right thing. The ‘real thing’, I would say. Any ideas what that might be?
Going ‘green’ has started to attract the corporates and the greenwashing campaigns are muddling the idea. (Do check what I wrote about Greenwashing in my post).
I think, as you have pointed out, it is about doing what is right.
Pavel, I would not touch ‘real thing’ with a bargepole. it’s Coca-Cola. And Coke is the biggest greenwashers of our time. I have some nice little facts on Cole for you in my post (and in one of the comments).
Lara, you said: I firmly believe that we need a permanent incentive engraved on our minds, or else ‘doing the green thing’ will be old news, even before December 7th arrives.
And you couldn’t be more right. The danger is imminent.