Are you going Green with Envy?

Question

Consumerists Are you going Green with Envy?

Why are so many people converting to a Greener lifestyle?

Why is it so ultra kewl to be green now?

Answer 1

Many people are Cash Rich, but Time Poor.

Since moving out to the country, like others posting here, I rapidly lost the notion of a romanticised ideal about green living, and traded it in for the reality of digging big holes to put trees in, hauling water about, removing snails from trees and a host of other activites that one does to keep things ticking over.

We are envied by many of our friends in the city, but we are not envied enough for them to come out and do the same thing. Sure they are pleased to be able to talk about their alternative lifestyle pals doing it tough a way out in the sticks, if makes a good story over a bottle or two of red wine for a minute or five. And when we make the trip in everyone makes a point of how well we look "out in the country air".

And we are gifted with the stories about how they too have gone green by separating out the rubbish, and planting a herb garden (the gardener comes every 3 days to water it don't you know, while he does the lawn).

Being green has become commoditised. Everyone wants to buy a chunk of green living along with everything else they buy. It's cool, and it isn't a bad thing, in many ways. The sentiments are good and it's a step in a right direction. But more often than not it's just one more thing on the shopping list from people who don't know any other habits to change.

Of course some people do genuinely convert to a greener lifestyle, and those that make a real go of it generally do so not out of sentimentality but because they realise it actually works for them. They are taking back ownership of the hours between waking and sleeping, which, despite billions spent in marketing ideas to the contrary, are all any of us have. They realise that friends are important, and extend their friendship networks to include the environment in which they live.

They realise that no matter how much they could be earning, working 8 hour days +2 hours commuting to save up to afford a house they will own after 20 years and invest in a pension fund they hope won't collapse before they get to spend it while sacrificing a huge chunk of their disposable income to raise children may not actually be the healthiest way to live. Because the most important thing we can share with each other and our children - is our time. And no matter how fearful we are about the future, the future will only be looked after day by day, like the present. And that if anything can keep us secure in old age it is good friends and children who have grown up to be compassionate because they have been raised by compassionate adults who have time for them, and have not treated them as units to be educated and dumped in the workplace.

That is why people are converting to a greener lifestyle, and why those who do convert stay converted. It's healthier. It claims time back. And it withdraws energy from a system which is fundamentally destructive to those who participate in it, to the environment and to the planets capacity to sustain life. Because it makes sense head and heart.

Answer 2

I have decided to "go green" for many reasons, first I want the earth to last a long time for my children and future generations and any little bit I can do to help makes me feel better. Second, I am now buying my cleaning products that are soo concentrated that only a few ounces in water goes a LONG LONG way. The products are chemical and detergent free and do a great job to boot. So, I am saving money which is a great benefit. I have always washed my clothes in cold water, I have always recycled, I plan to get several cloth totes to do my grocery shopping with, I just hate the fact of using all those plastic bags! I just used a microfiber cloth for the first time and it does a GREAT JOB!! no lint, no grime, and no paper that comes from trees and goes in the trash. In general, it saves money, it is better for your health, your wallet and the earth, so, why not?

Answer 3

Romantics. So many people romanticize people who live really green lifestyles.

"Oooo...I wanna live on a farm and bake my own bread, and hold baby animals!"

Oh yeah? I think they actually just want to EAT the homemade bread, not go through the actual work. They certainly do not want to be holding baby animals at 3am, when they are soaked to the bone, beyond tired, and the baby animal is probably not going to make it.

People think its' "cool" to have all that "free" engery from solar and wind turbines. They forget that means climbing the roof, and scrubbing those solar panels clean of dust, dirt and bird poop. Or that it means replacing parts of your broken wind turbine outside in all kinds of nasty weather, from broiling hot, to freezing cold.

They don't think about how much effort, and money goes into producing that "free" energy. How the homeowner who goes through a bad hail storm, may be replacing all of their solar panels with cash out of pocket, instead of picking up the phone, and calling the power company to just come fix it.

How romantic and cozy it is to sit around a wood stove with a crackling fire in it. They don't think about the work of hauling, cutting, splitting and stacking all that bloody wood, not to mention the dirt and insects it tracks in.

A lot more people ARE making the serrious comitments it takes to live a green lifestyle though. It's not easy though, from scrubbing out rainbarrels, to lugging 100 pound batteries, it takes real comitment.

However for those who are willing, and physically able to live greener lifestyles, they have a real sence of acomplishment. They can seen tangible results in their power bill, gas bill, or simply the amount of garbage they now toss out.

Being green is hip, trendy and "in." After all, if your not green, then you are practically condidered a blood sucking parasite nowdays.

The way to keep up with the Jones's these days is to be greener than they are.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 4

Good Question Bella yes i am Green with envy and thats how it should be Marketed as something so very Kool !!!.I do as what many others are doing and that is they are more aware of alternatives,from simple things like shoping bags,light bulbs, groceries and even meat products ,this will be the way of the future and the marketing companies can see the market shift.

Answer 5

At last people are beginning to realise it makes sense.

Consumerism is like an addiction. It gives you a buzz at first but as time goes by the buzz gets shorter and you become miserable with craving for more. So you get a lift from doing some more shopping and are quickly miserable again. Retail therapy its called but actually, just like crack cocaine, it screws you up.

We can enjoy life more when we stop trying to keep up with the neighbours and their spending habits.

Best wishes

Answer 6

I think global warming is finally getting through to people now, and everyone is waking up to the dangers. Have a great day.

Answer 7

Err - because if we don't go greener we won't have a planet left to pollute??

Answer 8

i have been doing the green thing most of my life.
and i guess people are just realizing they better help out before its too late.

Answer 9

green is bettern than red, the colour of bad temper.

Answer 10

because its good for the environment and for your wallet in the long run.