Weekend Review: The Lazy Environmentalist
My problem with The Lazy Environmentalist
These innovators make it easy for us to integrate environmental awareness into our lives. They understand that while so many of us are concerned about the environment, we don't always have the time, energy, or inclination to do something about it.
I only wish this was written in a less-than-serious voice. In my mind, if you don't have the "time, energy, or inclination" to do something about the environment, than you can hardly classify yourself as an environmentalist. You are looking to alleviate guilt for your conspicuous consumption, a culture of consumption that is devastating our planet. It's exactly the "culture of convenience" that's waging all-out war on our resources. Consider this passage from the chapter on cars:
There really is something for everyone–even those who drive Hummers, the most colossal of all urban assault vehicles…By offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions spewing from your car's tailpipe, TerraPass offers Hummer drivers eco-salvation.
Eco-salvation for Hummer drivers? A little too, oh, oxymoronic, for my tastes. Lazy is definitely geared towards a more high-end clientele, despite it's mention of Wal-Mart as an organic clothing retailer (Yeah, I know what you are thinking…I can't trust them quite yet, either).
Stepping off of my soapbox, for those of us who do have time, energy, and inclination to do something to lighten our footprint still have to buy goods and services, and Lazy provides a well-laid, well-written plan to finding greener versions of those goods and services. If you have to spend money, you might as well spend it on more sustainable products, right?
There are 22 chapters focusing on different products and services, from home furnishing to energy providers to media outlets (what, no shout out for Green Options?) Each chapter begins with a narrative insight into what practices these eco-companies are establishing to go green, then lists several companies, along with their websites and a brief description of what their business does or produces. Reading about different design innovations companies are using was fascinating (BraveSpace's hollow bamboo tables, anyone?), and I'll definitely check out many of the websites listed. If I'm going to save the planet, though, I've got better things to do.
- Activism
- Aircraft
- Alternative Fuels
- Architecture
- Automobiles
- Beauty
- Bicycles
- Book Reviews
- Books
- Business
- Community
- Consumer Products
- Cradle to Cradle
- Culture
- Design
- Eco-Entrepreneurs
- Energy
- Fair Trade
- Family
- Fashion and Apparel
- Features
- Food
- Gardening
- Green Building
- Green Tech
- Health
- Health and Health Products
- Home and Garden
- Home and Interior
- Jewelry and Accessories
- Landscaping
- Media
- Money
- Organic food
- Outdoors
- Personal Care
- Renovation and Repair
- Reviews
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Socially Responsible Investing
- Transportation
- Weekend Review
- Wine, Beer and Spirits
- green shopping guide
- josh dorfman
- lazy environmentalist
- review
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Good call, Kelli.
I see so much rubbish written about so-called “green consumers”, with the emphasis on Consumption : eco-friendly skirts for this summer, Fair Trade ornaments for your garden, FSC wooden flooring - all good stuff, if you really need to buy it new.
Since writing an article called “The New Shopping Order“, I have become extremely conscious of everything I obtain - obviously how it was produced, but more importantly whether I can get it second hand, whether I can repair something I already have, and most of all whether I need it at all.
Being green is about considering everything you do - not being lazy.
June 4th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Yes, it’s a turn-off to me, too. I suppose one could argue that it’s not geared toward “the choir,” but those who are not moved to act, so might inspire them to go in a “verdant” or “lime” direction.
On the other hand, it might just represent another consumer trend, the nature of the beast, to devour what threatens it.
I remember a brief “green” resurgence in the early 90s, and have worried that this is just another fad, but it does seem to be more widespread this time.
June 5th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
“In my mind, if you don’t have the “time, energy, or inclination” to do something about the environment, than you can hardly classify yourself as an environmentalist.”
Maybe if you came down off the high horse and spent a little time with the rest of us, you’d realize most people are not interested in being an environmentalist. But that does not mean they are incapable of making small lifestyle changes that can have a big impact on the environment.
I likely don’t agree with much of The Lazy Environmentalist, but the tenor you take here is what turns so many off from ever considering becoming a part of whatever environmental “movement” there might be.
June 9th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I think the thing that is driving the current green wave is exactly what Dorfman is asking people to do. Buy green. The reason mainstream america is getting on the green bandwagon is because it is becoming EASIER to BUY green. And they’re buying because these THINGS are now attractive, stylish like they never have before.
We are all consumers. We all have choices in what we buy. Given the choice (and given the price is right) people will use their dollars more responsibly. How many times have you gone the non-green route because of for the sake of convenience or lack of time or availability of a green option? I know I have. A lot.
Being a lazy environmentalist isn’t about alleviating guilt, or about being an environmentalist at all. It’s about doing what we can on an individual level to be aware of how our actions (especially what we buy) impact the planet. If everyone did something, even if it is a small thing, that is better than doing nothing at all.
July 10th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Personally, find the concept of the lazy environmentalist repugnant. When are people going to wake up to the reality that our consumption driven society is the biggest and worst contributor to Global Warming. We have the nuclear industry pushing for a Nuclear Renaissance under the guise of no CO2’s…who are we kidding here, and secondly, where in the discussion is conservation, and personal sacrifice? Environmentalist embracing nuclear are embracing and industry that kills people with cancer causing radioactive contaminants, all so they can continue consuming…where is the logic?
Somehow, going out and buying a $400 *GREEN* handbag to attend Vanity Fair’s Green Party in your limo is not what I call being earth friendly, yet that is just what Summer Rayne Oakes and shows like the Lazy Environmentalist would have Guppies believe. Massive selfish consumption of limited world resources is fine, as long as it is green at some point in the production and/or distribution process is no solution to the Earth’s problems, nor Global Warming.
Living Green is moving from being a earth concious life choice to the latest fad, with no real concern for anything other than how much money one can make being a green business, or how much prestiage can be gained in being a green socialite. The younger generation needs to wake up, and realize a basic fact…our global consumer goods life style and economy is killing the only home we all share.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Remember the old Stones song? Sometimes you don’t get what you want, but you get what you need? What I sense here is a generation which is afraid to give up the options they “think” their parents had… you still “need” things… tooth brushes and toilet paper and food and ways to get around… You just want to know the companies making all this stuff are starting to care a little bit, the cradle to cradle thing… The problem is in the attitude… Dorfman is RICH… he comes from a RICH family… he puts on the airs of a spoiled rich Westchester kid torn between doing good and doing good by his family… They’ve lived with the Indian Point nuclear power plant in their backyard… Josh knows nothing else, it’s always been there… like the sun, the Hudson, part of the landscape… and to him it’s OK… he doesn’t get it… he doesn’t have the sensibility to get it, and he doesn’t have the desire to suffer for his art… that’s the problem really, to be a great artist you need to “feel” a “need” for things that matter… Green to many is just another superficial shopping quest, like a new design trend, they really don’t have the earth connection that screams at many old time deep ecologists, most Native Americans… they’re not connected to this place in a way that could make them understand that their attempt at reaching the affluent masses is off-putting and repugnant to many who have been at this green game for a lot, lot longer… SRO and company should spend some time in a uranium mine… feel the effect this new green mass consumption has on the world… do we need all this stuff, is really the question… do we need another green designer anything? Now they say green is the new red… it’s always been the new red… Green is about making sustainable products but also making less of them… but that doesn’t drive a booming economy… it’s the economy, stupid! If to afford rent in Brooklyn, you need $1400 a month, where is that money going to come from if you don’t fuel the beast, every single day… Faustian bargain… The question is really this, can the economy go green? Or will the economy crack under pressure, give way for a violent revolution in the streets, and the system shift over to new forms of financial and political leadership… This is what Josh and SRO, new breed of green “superstar” environmentalogists are not working into their agenda, they want to be a-political, when the WHOLE topic is one BIG FAT political hot potato! So stop hiding under the veneer of your new found “fame”… get your hands dirty once in awhile with the folks whose shoulders you trampled to get where you are!