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Green Expectations... here to stay?
September 10, 2007

Without question, it's important to be committed to our environment. We should have been doing this for a very long time, years and years. Hopefully most of us have, at least in our personal lives, as most cities and towns have had ways to recycle for ages. Not to do this is inexcusable, and not only at home, but also in offices and factories. And everyone should be calling members of Congress about Global Warming. The White House should be called as well -- even though they're still testing the waters on Darwinism...
 
As far as our own work, as metal workers we've been recycling since we started. And in lighting products, there are wonderful new bulbs -- the new fluorescent bulbs, that last 10,000 hours, that have much less impact on the environment and cost less in wattage, too. The cost of the bulbs is coming down, but while they still cost more than incandescents, they pay for themselves in no time -- you'll see the difference in your electric bill. I read in a MOVE ON letter that if everyone changes just the five most-used bulbs in their home to the new fluorescents, America’s light ratio (which also creates a heat index that can be seen and photographed from space) would drop significantly. We could do the same by changing bulbs in our factories, offices, stores, etc.
 
OK. Enough lecturing. Here's what I think about the products. Yes, everyone should try their best to recycle material, and not destroy the world. Reclaim your paints, recycle your glass, don't use endangered species of wood -- whatever you can do. What drives me wild is when something becomes a gimmick for sales. GREEN (I've come to hate the word) shouldn't be about sales, it should be about the effort one is making to keep the world going.
 
It reminds me of when the Towers came down, a subject I'm particularly sensitive to, and people started making red, white, and blue products, or images of the Towers, though they'd never seen them when they were up. These people were vultures, and only saw the disasters of that day as a chance for merchandising. I see the same happening with GREEN. It shouldn't be a way to promote any thing or product - it should be a matter of responsibility.
 
While we're on the subject, there's also the side of GREEN no one talks about - how about being GREEN to the people who produce the products?  Now would be a perfect time for me to slam China and child labor, lousy-to-no wages, crummy working conditions, and their refusal to take a stand on Darfur (the only country that could truly make a difference), but I think they're doing a great job of trashing themselves just with the products they've been producing as of late. I just wonder why no one cares about the people we have producing our products, now that we've finally gotten around to caring for the world -- aren't these people a part of the world, too? --Babette Holland

Posted by Babette Holland on September 10, 2007 | Comments (0)