Buying green to avert global warming is like #%*&ing for chastity

The Greenwash Brigade

Michael Pollan's latest piece in the New York Times Magazine, "Why Bother?" tells us why we should bother.

Pollan parallels Wendell Berry's premise from the 70's that the environmental crisis was essentially a crisis of character. While Berry bemoaned people who were quick to write a check to an environmental organization but slow to reduce their own squandering of fossil fuels, Pollan highlights our current equivalent of "people buying carbon offsets to atone for their Tahoes and Durangos."

The same could be said about our fascination with buying green. Whether greenwash or legitimate environmental claims, I worry that buying our way out of our problems, simply by buying more of the right stuff, is fundamentally flawed.

Pollan instead imagines the sort of nonlinear, unpredictable viral social change that brought down the Eastern bloc, calling for readers to "find one thing to do in your life that doesn't involve spending or voting." For Pollan, it's planting a garden.

"The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world."

Zucchini, anyone?

April 22, 2008 by Jim Nicolow
7 comments

tags: buying green gardening Michael Pollan

Comments (7)

Janne Flisrand | Respond
April 23, 2008 6:36 AM PT

Argh! That old "character" trope again.

Blaming people only turns them off, and inspiring them to act has a minimal effect.

As someone who "bothers," it would be great if everyone joined me. But only a small portion of people are motivated by "should," and on a global scale few have the luxury to bother.

Everyone is motivated by "have to." Have to feed the kids. Have to stay safe. Have to have a home.

If environmental costs - all environmental costs - were included in the cost of "have tos," people who want to bother could... and those who don't care to or aren't free to (for reasons of time, or cost, or information, or whatever) wouldn't create problems for the rest of us.

Even "bothering" doesn't get us very far. We may "bother" about the wrong things. Pollan plants a garden, but maybe he'd do better by insulating his home, or not driving. Who knows?

Until the cost of every purchase (everywhere) includes the cost to clean up the toxic and greenhouse pollution and waste created in its production, to get rid of the pollution and waste when we use it and throw it away, bothering is only a way to assuage our guilt.

Jim | Respond
April 24, 2008 7:04 AM PT

Thanks, Janne. I totally agree that the market will make better decisions if only the 'externalities' were embedded in the cost (pollution, endocrine disruption, loss of ecosystem services, etc.). Ultimately, that needs to happen. But I think Pollan makes a valid point about the potential strength, and non-linear-rapidity, of social change.

We may find, for instance, that our culture deems it a socially unacceptable embarrassment to be seen driving a Hummer even before increased CAFE standards or high gas prices seal its fate. We are social creatures.

Ben | Respond
April 24, 2008 9:52 AM PT

In one way, I'm glad to see gas prices headed toward $4 per gallon nationally. I hope that's the point where the people with the Tahoes and Durangos start atoning in a real way, by dumping them to get vehicles with better gas mileage, or dusting off the bike in the basement and using it to commute. I bike to work three days a week, and seem to be the only person in my entire multi-story office building who does so. It will be interesting to see how high gas prices need to go to change that (though I won't enjoy paying whatever price that is myself!).

Allen | Respond
April 30, 2008 12:45 PM PT

"Pollan instead imagines the sort of nonlinear, unpredictable viral social change that brought down the Eastern bloc, calling for readers to "find one thing to do in your life that doesn't involve spending or voting." For Pollan, it's planting a garden."

How the heck did Pollan plant a garden without spending money? Surely he bought land at some point. Or was it a public garden? How did he get seeds without purchasing them? et al.?

Sunfell | Respond
April 30, 2008 1:40 PM PT

I'll admit that I never understood the whole 'carbon offset' thing. It sounds like some kind of elaborate scam to me.

But gardening- I do understand that. Yes, you have to spend money upfront to put one in. And a little bit every subsequent year to replace, refresh, and replant stuff.

But there's something incredibly satisfying and 'stickin' it to the Man'- esque about stepping outside and picking your own salad, veggies, and herbs for seasoning. No trips to the grocery store! Locally grown food! Chats with neighbors who then go put in their own gardens because yours looks so cool!

I'm not rich, so my raised bed garden is in a plastic kiddie pool and a series of food-service buckets scrounged from a nearby restaurant. Weeding takes mere minutes. So does watering.

Each year, I add something else to the setup- more buckets, another pool, different plants. Online, I find all sorts of tips, hints, and ideas. And when people come over for dinner, they really enjoy the food!

And I always have extra zucchini!

Mark Gaaserud | Respond
May 2, 2008 11:53 AM PT

I work on a green initiative at Amazon.com in Seattle, and we’re trying to have informed visitors to our site shape a ranked list of the best green products so that mainstream consumers can consider green options when shopping. I take your point that not buying unnecessary goods is often more eco-friendly that buying a twelfth hemp belt, but light bulbs etc. are consumables so I think that there is a net benefit to surfacing the better options. If anyone in interested in weighing in on the list, I’d certainly invite you to add your input at www.amazon.com/green. Cheers.

Liz | Respond
May 5, 2008 2:03 PM PT

I don't think that either choice - buying green products or not buying anything - is the be all end all. To each his own. BUT, I also say, lead by example. I have managed to change just a few people in my social orbit - by getting them to not buy anything for as long as they can stand it (as a member of "The Compact"), by switching to a less toxic cleaning product, or biking to work. And, by having friends over for dinner and serving them a meal that came almost entirely from our garden, we have inspired at least one other person in our social circle to plant their own small garden. Changing the world one person at a time. And, if I had been so lucky to be a trendsetter, a la Malcolm Gladwell's book, then, boy, could that have made a real difference. Also, I recommend thestoryofstuff.com.

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Meet the Greenwash Brigade

Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

NOTE: The opinions expressed by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of American Public Media or its employees. American Public Media is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers.

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