gimme the solar power

green·wash (grēn'wŏsh', -wôsh') n.

1. The dissemination of misleading information by an organization to conceal its abuse of the environment in order to present a positive public image.

[green + (white)wash.]

Greenwashing - The term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices. This is often portrayed by changing the name or label of a product, to give the feeling of nature, for example putting an image of a forest on a bottle of harmful chemicals.

Greenwashing was coined by suburban NY enviromentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, in an essay regarding the hotel industry's practice of placing green placards in each room, promoting reuse of guest-towels, ostensibly to "save the environment". Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward waste recycling was being implemented by these institutions, due in part to the lack of cost-cutting effected by such practice. Westerveld opined that the actual objective of this "green campaign" on the part of many hoteliers was, in fact, profit increase.

this is greenwashing:

1. "in their own way" - oh really? no. there is no "their way." there's my way, and then there's the wrong way. heh. no, but really, i think that leaves too much wiggle room. "i'm green. i recycle." "i'm green. i bought a hybrid." ooooh which leads me to #2
2. buying new things that are greener (or maybe only seem greener!) isn't actually as green as, say, using that thing until it can be used no more, then finding ways to reuse it for parts and recycling if you have to. it means buying very little. i think this is probably the most subtle form of greenwashing.
3. the blogger who posted this commented that the style of bike, also, makes this greenwashing. apparently because it's not the 'everyman' bike it doesn't allow people to see themselves doing that themselves. they say "oh, that's nice" and then climb into their SUV and drive to walmart.

heh. i really have no idea why i got on this rant tonight.

hahahah and i'm listening to james brown now, who's singing "i want the soul power, gimme the soul power" but it almost could sound like "i want the solar power, gimme the solar power."

you said it, man.