Notes on a Color

I was in a meeting not to long ago when a colleague mentioned his disgust (from an ecocritical standpoint) with all this "greening" going on.

But wait, I thought, isn't this what we're hoping for?

And then I went to Manhattan, KS and watched tv in my hotel room. Oy.

"Greenwashing" I've heard it called, this veneer of care. The message seems to be-- hell, the only message is consumerism. A lifestyle of absurd consumption--let me emphasize this--will never be green (though that term is rapidly losing meaning). The first step, always, is reduce. Then, reuse. Lastly, when the usefulness has been wrung out, recycle.

Here's HGTV's Green Home Giveaway in Tradition, Hilton Head, SC. Note the size of the house. Note that though it's on an island, you can't open the house to cross breezes; instead, there's a super-efficient AC. It raises high the question: can you have a satisfying, fulfilling standard of living without having a lifestyle that will render the planet inhospitable for future generations of humans? I think we can, but I don't think HGTV's got it.

Comments

[Crafty Green Poet]

Greenwashing is a huge problem, deluding people into thinking that they can continue consuming excessively. We can live a satisfying life in an environmentally sustainable way but it will require huge changes to what most people consider to be satisfying. We face a huge challenge...