Trendy green

The other day I was sitting in a coffee shop and people-watching, thinking about my environmental sustainability class and thought to myself: It seems as though many people, including me, were somehow unaware that our environment was in trouble until the “Green Phenomenon” happened.

In other words, it was not until “Go green” T-shirts, organic bed sheets, roofs of buildings, make-up, grocery bags, shoes, food and labels of “Recycle” and “Eco-Friendly” emerged.

Out of nowhere it seemed like the Earth spun out of orbit until every bumper sticker and window display had a sudden interest in being “Environmentally Sustainable.”

I can’t think of any other movement besides this green movement that emerged so fast and became a bigger fashion trend than skinny jeans, chrome messenger bags or v-necks. It seems like sustainable tote bags are only products that are being bought for trendy purposes.

Would you really spend $50 dollars for an ugly hemp bag that didn’t have a green recycling logo on it? I doubt you would buy it for an environmental benefit since without the logo on it how would you know and be able to tote your pseudo contribution to sustainability?

Celebrities influence what people wear—and I don’t care what reputation Portland has as being honestly sustainable—I think it is safe to say that a lot of people can credit Beyonce for big gold earrings as much as hybrid cars can be credited to Leonardo DiCaprio.

The green movement in the United States is more of a capitalistic trend than an initiative to help the environment. I am sure there are cities like Portland and Chicago that do work hard to get rid of materialistic efforts to aid the environment and rather focus on pushing the government to take more political actions to reduce carbon impact, the majority of the country is probably not.

I do not hear of any other city like Portland that takes reasonable steps to protect the earth for a long-term improvement.

Becoming involved with campus organizations to help the environment, offering classes about sustainability, focusing research on better ways to create sustainable solutions for solving environmental problems—and also the social problems that educate people around the world about the world—are all examples of the way Portland has taken huge steps to educate students, communities and the people in charge of the city about the importance of the environment and sustainability efforts.

This education should expand on bigger levels because buying organic materials has very little impact.

The “banana paper” you buy instead of the standard college ruled paper is in fact not as friendly as you think it is. The banana agro-industry generates numerous wastes such as: the plastic that wraps the bananas and plastic cords to tie the wrapping so the packaging looks good enough for you to think its sustainable, as well as damaged bananas and the pinzote (stems). For your information, about 10 million metric tons of pinzote are thrown in landfills every year or even worse, in local rivers.

If that isn’t alarming, then I’m not sure you realize that what you put in your reusable shopping bag does not benefit the environment because eco-consumerism is not the only solution to aid the environment. T-shirts that advertise recycling do nothing.

More energy and resources are used to package and ship your banana paper, as well as more trees are extracted from the earth than is worth using the product itself. This green industry is only an excuse to reinforce and not change our materialistic nation by making people think they are benefiting the environment.

The only way to help the environment is to actually stop buying unnecessary things such as bamboo tables that hold your 72-inch plasma TV and solar-paneled houses with five cars parked in your garage. Also, keep telling yourself you are being Earth friendly if you buy a $45 eco-friendly American Apparel T-shirt. That sure is a huge help to the environment.

“Going Green” is not something you can buy unfortunately. We must take huge steps to impact the environment in a good way because buying organic clothes isn’t going to cut it. If you want to think that way, you have all the freedom in the world to do so, including the right to waste your money on what you think will help the environment.

Do yourself and the environment a favor; don’t just buy things you think are eco-friendly, as they are all only a temporary fashion trend.