Saturday, February 4, 2012

Driving a Prius Does Not Make You Green

Read in WSJ It's Too Easy Being Green; In case WSJ removed the link here it is

A brilliant article in the WSJ. Driving a Prius, flying a 787 or A380 to New Zealand, relieving traffic congestion, eating locally grown tomatoes does not make you green. In fact, it encourages more driving, flying, inefficient food delivery. Only NOT driving at all, NOT flying, NOT eating, NOT showering, NOT using a ski lift, NOT using cellphone towers makes you green.
NOT CONSUMING is green, but very boring.
Are you latte-drinking REI-clad Subaru-driving coexist facebookers willing NOT to consume?
I think not.
Before recycling became free in Salt Lake County, very few houses in my neghborhood had the blue recycling bins. Now every Tuesday morning, before they get into their giant Suburbans, my neighbors put out bins hugely overflowing with plastic wrapping from Wal-Mart and cardboard boxes from Costco. Some have more than one. Success of recycling.
See Wilson's link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=badoMjA_rW0

2 comments:

  1. Top gear also agrees...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=badoMjA_rW0

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  2. Robert it seems we are going to consume regardless, as per the article. Could you imagine every person in the world consuming as much as the average "green American?" We would need more than one earth probably. What is the ideal population of the world? Have you ever seen an estimate of what a sustainable amount would be, considering current global levels of consumption?

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