Greenwashing

In case you haven't noticed, Americans are suddenly becoming "Eco-conscious." A couple weeks ago, Audrey and I were shopping at Heritage 1981, and she asked me how I felt about this green/organic movement. Even though I am glad that people are being more excited to save Mother Earth, its a bit ridiculous how much of a fad it is. For example, this particular store (and if you go to the website you can see) sells an overwhelming amount of merchandise that has sayings like "save the whales!" "conserve water!" "recycle" at too high a price (in my opinion). First of all... unless these shirts are made from "organic cotton" or whatever, I'm not convinced. For all we know, some kid in a sweatshop made that shirt. Second, instead of paying $20 for a t-shirt... shouldn't you be donating that money to an organization that represents your cause? wouldn't that be more proactive? Because if not I feel like you have to have money to be green, and I just don't think the hippies would approve. Even though I'm not vegetarian, there was one shirt though that I liked: "I was a vegetarian before it was cool."
It makes me feel a little queasy when people are so into organic stuff. I feel like people are kind of snobbish about it. It's not necessarily healthier... its going to have the same nutritional value, and you'd have to be extra careful to wash it, more so than with pesticides. I have a hard time believing that people will pay more for "organic" things when non-organic is just as good. $3 for organic spaghetti? no thanks. There really is no definition for "natural", so even if it says it is... it may not be as natural as you think. I did see the practicality of this health tip however: buy organic produce that is normally heavilly sprayed with pesticides such as peaches or strawberries. I realize that pesticides ruin the environment and have a huge affect on pollinators such as bees. So shouldn't we be pushing for more environmentally safe practices? Believe it or not, farmers are great environmentalists, but they do the best they can with what they have, so we can't blame them... pesticide use is the consumer's fault.
But back to the title of this post... I was randomly watching this thing on youtube and it mentioned this article about Barbie and Mattel "going green." It made a good point... how can Barbie be so green, when she's SO plastic?! I grew up on Barbies and hate to admit that Mattel is completely raping the consumer here. This comment sums it up best: The lengths companies will go to in order to try and dupe the general public. Seriously, the only ones buying this are the same people buying the earth day walmart shirts that say “Save the People”. Wait, that is probably a lot of people. I guess this is sad then? Now I am angry!
Well basically it used a word I had never heard before-- GREENWASHING. Naturally there is a whole wikipedia article on it and here is how it is defined:

Greenwash (a portmanteau of green and whitewash) is a term that is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

I love that there is even a word for this! The things companies will do to try to appear "green" for the sake of attracting consumers is outrageous. 100 years from now students in high school US History will have this in their "terminology to know from the early 21st century." Or I hope so anyway cause that would be cool. To have a word like "greenwash" up there with yellow journalism or McCarthyism? Its just another thing to make us more conscientious of what (and who) to really believe. To never accept anything as truth.
Audrey agreed that this greenism was a fad, but she also suggested that maybe it was a fad that would stick around and some good might actually come out of it. I sure hope so... because when people are doing things just because everyone else is doing it, i am secretly compelled to do the opposite. If I had more faith in the consumer not believing everything they are told, maybe I wouldn't be so anti green.
So the next time you feel the urge to "save the environment", stop and think. Are there better ways to be proactive? Am I being greenwashed? How organic is organic? Am I only being green in one part of my life or in all? (Not because you should do all or nothing, but because you should brainstorm on what else you can do) There are a lot more ways to get involved than buying a bag that says "I love the earth."