Green-Washed

Today's Underdog: The Environmental Movement

Green this. Green that. Green everything. It's like the world has had someone puke green all over the place. The reason I choose this ugly metaphor is to emphasize how what seems like a green world is actually something far less positive. There's a term for the marketing tactics used by companies, whereby they convince consumers their products are green, even if they may not be, to sell products. It's called green-washing. I'd argue that our whole world, from politics to the private corporate world, has been green-washed. We think we are helping the world's environment, but we may not be doing all we can. Thus, the environmental movement of the 21st century is still an underdog, for their positive messages are being lost in green-washing and other rhetoric. As we explore this concept, we will start by discussing a way of thinking, the eco-critical lens.

Eco-criticism calls for us to question the canon of literature, in the process evaluating depictions of nature and exploring concepts like green-washing, as done earlier in this post. A helpful quote that epitomizes this criticism is, "it's not language that has a whole in its ozone layer," a quote by Kate Soper. Eco-criticism calls for us to stop debating the language, and examine the situation's reality. So let's use this lens and apply it to our current lives and the environmental movement, in the process exploring how it's an underdog.

Name five famous environmentalists. Ok, now name five energy or oil companies. Which did you have an easier time doing? I found the latter much easier, and I imagine many of you did, too. Ok here's another flash survey. Do you buy plastic water bottles? Turn the lights off when you leave a room? Turn the water off when you brush your teeth? Once again, the majority of Americans would say no. Yet, we think that buying packages or cars that advertise themselves with the Lorax or the color green (like Honda) makes us extremely environmental. An ecocriticist would tell us to look deeper. Look way deeper.

For one, consider our literature and movies. It seems like they are bringing the ideas of the environment to the front page. What could be bad about Wall-E? I challenge you to look deeper. What if Wall-E is making a dangerous connection? While it may seem a stretch to see the movie as equating environmental destruction with obesity, it is a very real connection that has consequences. The challenge is that any time either environmental concerns or health concerns are brought up, they are connected as one in the same, potentially hurting each other's causes. Similar arguments have been made about the new Lorax movie, including an argument that it makes people believe environmental sustainability in cities is impossible. While these arguments may be drastic examples, the rely on ecocritical readings to show how we may be the victims of green-washing, assuming everything green is really green.

So how does this relate to our underdog? Very simply. When we are green-washed we don't see what is truly green, allowing the real voices of the modern environmental movement to be swallowed by Hollywood and companies. Here's one last good example. This commercial spoofs clean-coal, explaining how there isn't such a thing. So don't be blinded by green, and consider what is truly environmental. Let's all help the underdog win.