The Positives to False Advertising

ow I'm not usually one to preach the positives of situations that, without the overbearingly selfish tendencies of human influence (this time big business), could be forces of bettering change in society, but this one is important and perplexing. This is the dramatic case of "going green." The much scoffed at and afeared topic that is sometimes lightly and sometimes harshly scrutinized in the environmental realm, has reached at once an all-time high and an all-time low.

Reading about the stark falsifications of "green" certifications and the startling efforts to establish unenforceable “green initiatives” (except you, Kansas) is certainly less than ideal, but has recently been filling me with a kind of hope. Before you direct too much effort toward writing me hate-mail, let me explain. 

Call me crazy, but I think consumers might be trying to do some good in all of this. Sure big business—clout and capital in toe—is doing it’s very best to scam the global public to literally buy into the greenwashing of everything — with labels like “sustainably harvested” or “produced using eco-friendly methods” — but the motives behind this, in a bare-bones sort of way, are almost noble. Society is buying into fake green products because they want to buy into real green products.

But now I have to ask: Why are sales up, even in the tail-end of a recession, for products that are claiming to be 'good' for the planet? The answer, as I've started digging, is not altogether simple. 

An Inconvenient Truth (2006), The Age of Stupid (2009), Plastic Planet (2011), and many more 'break-through' films all have the same thing in common: they sell tickets. So the real question here is not "is society learning?" it is more accurately "is society buying?" By this I mean that, for better or worse, fear sells. And although I don't agree entirely with this NYTimes Dot post, the basic idea behind his anti-alarmist argument is that society should be doing it's homework on global climate change, so that the trickle down repercussions of "going green" are more of a grounded (logical and sustainable) effort, rather than a fashion statement, 'convenient' effort, or worse, a following of the big business lemming leaders. 

Now to be honest, I'm not entirely sure where the disconnect is coming from here. I wish I could say that because people are being made aware and even prompted to fear global climate change, they are taking drastic steps toward improving the planet by purchasing so-called sustainable goods. But the reality here is that a conversation has been started, with dollars acting as the talking heads, where the correlation between caring for the environment and valuing real positive change is not direct. 

How we spend our dollars is a big problem. Global climate change is a huge problem -- it's seemingly insurmountable, unquantifiable, misbegotten. But, and most importantly, it's ours. I appreciate the steps that are being taken for what they are worth as people set aside part of their budget to buy the 'sustainable' paper-towels and 'biodegradable' plates. But where does the commodification of the future end?

Despite the sometimes dystopian future we face, it appears that the privilege afforded by a developed nation has not made us impervious to a will to adjust, however slowly. I am hopeful that in the face of falsification and commodifying invaluable resources, there is at least a glimmer of hope in society's meek conviction to even engage. 

I don't generally leave my posts unanswered, but this one does not have a call to action that is in any way inconspicuous:  Do your homework. Vote for tighter initiatives and laws on labeling anything "sustainable" or "green" (whatever 'green' means, right?). Spend your dollars for a brighter future. 

I'll leave you with a quote from Susan Cain's book Quiet, spoken by Professor Preston Ni:

"...if the idea is good, people shift. If the cause is just and you put heart into it, it's almost a universal law: you will attract people who want to share your cause. Soft power is quiet persistence...Eventually they build up a team."

Perhaps this is my soft power attempt to the world. Speak, think, and spend wisely, my friends.