 "Photo: Ray Ho")
As we move closer and closer to a global ecological catastrophe, the consumer trend of "going green" has become more prevalent throughout our culture. Industries, wishing to maintain the power they hold, have struggled to appease the green consumer by new marketing ploys based on "lessening one's carbon footprint." At first glance, this goal may seem like the solution to our environmental stresses.
However, those of us who truly care about the environment would prefer to see diverse life and ecosystems left intact rather than transformed into toxic wastelands. As long as global industrial production continues, there will be long-term, devastating effects on the planet. Just because a hybrid car uses less fuel does not mean that it has either a good or a sustainable effect on the environment.
Consider the materials needed to produce a car. Their production requires incredible amounts of water, energy, natural resources and labor to produce. Due to the global nature of modern industry, the materials have to be transported from all across the globe. The fuel needed to transport the products is only a part of the problem.
A horde of heavy equipment, relying on mass amounts of steel, copper, zinc and iron, among other materials including petroleum and plastics, is further needed to produce industrialized consumer products. In the case of a car, a majority of the waste and pollution created and energy used occurs in the production process alone.
We too often forget to ask the most important questions regarding industrial production. Where do these resources come from? Whose land is being exploited? Where does the waste end up? Regardless of how "green" or "ecofriendly" one shops, the answers are all the same.
Any time a region is devoted to industry, something is being displaced and eradicated, whether it be vegetation or animal populations (including humans). Mining and blasting processes, critical to any "green energy" production, are death sentences to any ecosystem. The waste poisons lakes, rivers and oceans and flows downstream to communities that require water to live.
The burning of fuels transports pollutants into the air, which are pushed by the wind into what are commonly lower-class neighborhoods, thereby causing higher rates of asthma and cancer among the populations. Environmental and social justice issues are intertwined, from the destruction carried out upon indigenous peoples to the underpaid sweatshop workers, all of whom are cogs in the industrial machine.
Capitalism itself and true sustainability cannot coexist. Capitalism inherently evaluates the environment in order to form a market price. Everyone is forced to question how much his or her surroundings can be used as resources to gain an upper hand in the quest to obtain more money, as if that makes one a better person. It pits humans against one another and desensitizes us to the other living creatures that make up ecosystems.
If a resource can be exploited for material gain, chances are it already has been and will continue to be until it runs out, regardless of the global impact it creates.
To take it a step further, civilization is incompatible with a completely healthy environment. Since the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago, the land has slowly been deteriorating as a result of human actions. There was a time when forests grew wherever possible. All animals, human or not, could gather their own food, all of it being pesticide free and organic. One could drink water straight out of a river and not worry about deadly diseases.
Adults were more in tune with their bodies and could manage natural forms of birth control. Nobody had to enter an artificial environment in order to stay in shape. People lived in harmony and had a strong spiritual bond with their environment, making sure never to exploit it or take more than what was necessary for survival.
The new "green consumer" trend is nothing more than a sham. It's a front for a materialist culture attempting to justify its consumerism. We need to focus our efforts on providing more local resources for food, clothing and shelter instead of following the latest fads. It's not enough to simply lessen the impact our societies have on the environment. All that does is pass the responsibility of preparing for collapse onto the next generation. Global industries, no matter how "green," are still tools for ecocide and will not save the planet.
Andrew Hecht is a contributing writer. E-mail him at opinion@nyunews.com.
