Environmentalism has turned into something commercial. Companies are scrambling to produce products that appeal to people who want to save the environment. However, environmentalism and commercialization should be opposites. To help the environment, you should not buy as much and you should not use as much money. To me, there is a fundamental ideology that is wrong with environmentalism—buying green. It is cool now, commercial now, and everyone is joining the cause to sell “green” products. Yes, it is good that more companies are recycling and producing recyclable products, however that does not mean someone should toss out what they have to buy these new green products. Plus, our own country has not taken an active role in helping environmentalism, by passing stricter air and recycling laws. Carbonrally.com gave Rachel and I great challenges to offer to others. In addition, most of the challenges actually save people money, therefore logically being green means using less money and not the other way around.
With our project, we hoped to reach a wide audience and not just the students on campus; we wanted families to realize that they could help the planet while saving money. Recycling and air drying your clothes does not take much more time then throwing away everything and tossing your clothes in the dryer. There are some clothes that need or should be done in the dryer, however many more clothes, such as underwear and socks do not need to be dried in a dryer. I personally, always thought that line drying in a home, without heat or sunlight would take forever and drip everywhere. However, when I first dried my clothes in my dorm room, they were dry by morning. I started to dry my clothes because of the ridiculous laundry prices, so I would plan to wash three loads of clothes, but only do one load in the dryer which had towels and pants, and sheets for my bed that I needed dry sooner than over night. I personally, really wanted Papa Murphy’s Pizza to allow us to put a sign up in their store, because to mean Papa Murphy’s pizza is a cheap alternative and would reach many families who would be willing to air dry clothes to save money. However that did not work out for us.
As Rachel and I were walking down main street in Forest Grove, she brought up a great point. We walked by an appliance store and she commented that we should not ask them to put up this sign, because they sell washers and dryers. It shows you that companies would like you to believe that you need to buy a certain product to be green, to be greener than the next person, to show off how green you really are, but this is not the case. Green should not be a new status symbol, as it has become, it should be a way of life that will not be given up on once a new way of life is advertised. If found out from a mother recently that they are really stressing green living to elementary school children, which I believe is for the best. If you teach someone something when one is young, the person is more likely to turn that into a habit forming act. We may be leaving the planet in an ugly state for our children, but at least they will have the courage and willingness to change what we fucked up.
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