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The 'greenwashing' of America by Jackie Green The Courier-Journal Tuesday, April 7, 2009 Louisville, Ky. |
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If you want to "green" your transportation, don't buy a bicycle. Bikes are made of toxic plastics, paints, grease, rubber, oil, steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, films and fabrics. And don't buy a bike from any of our three bike shops. All our bikes come from overseas. We don't have any control over environmental (or employment) conditions in manufacturing. Sure, our suppliers tell us environmental standards are upheld (and fair wages are paid), but I don't know that is true. I do know the environmental footprint of the transportation of those bikes from source to our shops is huge. Bikes are not "green." To contend otherwise is greenwashing and a violation of truth. As Emerson put it, "Every violation of truth is a stab at the health of human society."
In the past two years greenwashing has escalated exponentially. Last month Electric Vehicles International (EVI) contacted the Green Convene (GC). EVI: "We will be unveiling the first fully electric commercial trucks at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville in a week-and-a-half, and I was hoping to network with various green organizations in the area to help get the word out about this breakthrough in green technology. I think these vehicles will have a huge impact on the environment and I'd like to get your ideas and opinions." GC: "How would you answer the perception that electric vehicles are mountaintop removal vehicles?" EVI: "I don't think I understand your question. Could you elaborate?" GC: "Electricity = coal = mountaintop removal." EVI responded with more greenwash. We could have countered by listing the results of mining and burning coal, but didn't bother. Greenwashing is not limited to out of state electric truck and car manufacturers. Local lawn care companies claim eco-friendliness with 100 percent electric equipment. Kentucky sells "clean coal." Lexmark claims environmental citizenship while opposing a Kentucky Senate bill promoting the recycling of electronics. Organic vegetables wrapped in plastic and shipped from California are touted as "green". Bottled water is bottled water. The Build the Bridges Coalition claims two new Ohio River bridges will reduce emissions -- by allowing more motor vehicles to travel faster through and around Louisville. 8664 greenwashes their sprawl inducing, major automotive infrastructure by using the highway builders' language calling their West End, four-lane, ground level highway a "parkway." They then adding insult to injury by using pictures of futuristic trolleys in an urban setting while the reality is that 8664 jeopardizes future public transit in Louisville. We are bombarded with greenwash. Greenwash is the new white lie (or not so white). A harsher examination of Tom Sawyer's portrayal of his odious whitewashing chore as something desirable ("Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?") was not as innocent as it was Orwellian. Tom operated from "an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, misinformation, and denial of truth," "a condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society." And Emerson's "violation of truth [is] a stab at the health of human society."
This is no time for violating truth. The coming socio-economic-environmental changes and crises require that we be truthful. Humanity is already experiencing revolutionary changes in lifestyle, in economy, in transportation, in how we relate to fellow human beings and in how we relate to earth. We are going to be challenged in ways and on a scale that humanity has never before seen. We cannot afford greenwashing at any level. We need truth. Our challenge is to recognize and repudiate all greenwashing.
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