A few weeks ago I was part of the Green Is Universal. The whole thing seems a little silly to me. I know that NBC is trying to raise the media visibility of being more green to people. They want to show us more ways to save energy and not be wasteful.
The reason I think this is silly is because NBC is going to still run ads for just about anything. Most of the car company ads they ran for Hybrids, but they still ran a Lincoln SUV ad. If NBC going to turn down ads for products because they are not green enough? Are they going to make judgements about their major advertisers? To be honest I am not expecting them to.
What is the standard for a Green television network. There are people who will say that TV networks can never be green. The art of adverting stands against the very idea of being green. Right now they are trying to cash in on being green. If that is the case, we should hold them to some standards.
My idea is that there should be a CAFE standard for television networks and automobile advertising. The CAFE standard is the rules for fleet fuel milage for cars. From the NHTSA website:
What is CAFE?
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) is the sales weighted average fuel economy, expressed in miles per gallon (mpg), of a manufacturer’s fleet of passenger cars or light trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 8,500 lbs. or less, manufactured for sale in the United States, for any given model year. Fuel economy is defined as the average mileage traveled by an automobile per gallon of gasoline (or equivalent amount of other fuel) consumed as measured in accordance with the testing and evaluation protocol set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This standard should apply to Networks. There should be a one to one standard. This way the cars with the best MPG will get more ads. I think this would go a log way for what people drive.
The rationale for the ban is simple. All cars pollute, even fuel-efficient cars, so calling a car green is a bit of a stretch. It’s like referring to filtered cigarettes as healthy. Norwegian government-type person Bente Oeverli explains, “Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others.”
This is a good point. A while ago I thought it was funny to see the Prius commercials where they say it is good for the environment. In the US we know that people are not going to give up their cars until we have to. There is no way we will give up until there is no gas left. Environmentalist in the US want us to be less bad. In Norway they are more likely to get people to give up their cars I guess.
I like this idea. I have a hard time seeing us consume our way to a better environment. I know people who see it that way. It takes a ton of water to make a pound of coffee, even if it is organic and shade grown.
I found a link on Terrapass to a New York Times article about Green Consumerism. It brings up a some interesting paradoxes.
“There is a very common mind-set right now which holds that all that we’re going to need to do to avert the large-scale planetary catastrophes upon us is make slightly different shopping decisions,” said Alex Steffen, the executive editor of Worldchanging.com, a Web site devoted to sustainability issues.
Right now I feel like I am getting this message. I feel that ads about many "green products" are telling me I do not need to change how I act to save the world, I just need to change what I buy. I think the whole compact fluorescent bulbs ads feel this way.
“We turn toward the consumption part because that’s where the money is,” Mr. Hawken said. “We tend not to look at the ‘less’ part. So you get these anomalies like 10,000-foot ‘green’ homes being built by a hedge fund manager in Aspen. Or ‘green’ fashion shows. Fashion is the deliberate inculcation of obsolescence.”
For many people I know, I feel that they want to be environmentalists, but they do not want to give up their luxury's. They still want to travel, have the big house, or work the job that gets them a lot of money. I think that they are being sold the idea that green shopping is enough for that to have that leeway.
I work for a consumer electronics company. I believe that you cannot work for a consumer electronics company and be an environmentalist. My job is to help sell desire. Selling that desire is bad for the environment. When I would bring this idea up at work it would ruffle a lot of people. They did not like my idea and they did not agree with it. It made them rethink how they saw them self in the world and that is never comfortable.
In the end consuming less can only be a good thing. It is not enough to just consume better. We have to be mindful of where our money is going and where it is coming from. I know that this is very hard for me and most the people I know.
India's largest car company is coming out with a car that runs on compressed air. Now that is thinking outside the box. I think ideas like this are great. But we will never seen this car in America.
Of course, the Air Car will likely never hit American shores, especially considering its all-glue construction.
I guess it would really use a battle with an SUV. Where I live it is not worth having a car that cannot ride on the highway.
I was watching the Oscars tonight and they said that they have gone green this year. They said that they have incorporated green practices in all stages of the production. This statement says nothing. We know nothing about how much energy they are saving. We no nothing about what they are doing to reduce carbon emissions. The web site says nothing about what they are doing. It only describes what the public can do.
To be honest, telling me you are green now, means nothing to me. You can pat yourself on the back all your want. You still are selling cars during the commercials and some of them are SUVs. You are selling makeup, candy, credit cards, soda, and soap. I am not sure these ads for the the greenest products in the world. It means very little for your broadcast to be green and the products you are selling are not green.
I do not want to hear that you are green. I want to hear that the broadcast is carbon neutral. Hey Oscars, call me when you get there. After that call me when all movies are carbon neutral. That is the only way we will get where Al Gore wants us to go.
I wonder if environmentalists hate the story of Paul Bunyan. I was watching a cartoon about Paul Bunyan and I was surprised about how it was Terra-forming. Changing the landscape for the benefit of man. I would think environmentalists would hate that.
I do not want to sound discouraging, but banning Styrofoam containers feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The Mercury News did do a Pro/Con list for getting rid of Styrofoam. The real problem I worry about is not addressed by the list. I worry about how much energy it takes to make each kind of containers. If global warming is the most important environmental issues for us to address, how much energy it takes to make containers is more important than if it degrades or not. There is no two ways around it.
I am not all that sure about LifeScience.com, but they did run Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth. It is a pretty fun read.
Note:
This is not a guide for those whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity. I can in no way guarantee the complete extinction of the human race via any of these methods, real or imaginary. Humanity is wily and resourceful, and many of the methods outlined inside will take many years to even become available, let alone implement, by which time mankind may well have spread to other planets; indeed, other star systems.
If total human genocide is your ultimate goal, you are reading the wrong document. There are far more efficient ways of doing this, many which are available and feasible right now. Nor is this a guide for those wanting to annihilate everything from single-celled life upwards, render Earth uninhabitable or simply conquer it. These are trivial goals in comparison.
I heard your interview with Laurie David and I had to write to you. I did not watch Earth to America because I cannot listen people who have made millions of dollars off television ads tell me how bad global warming is. I do not think TBS is going to stop taking ads revnue from people or companies who are causing global warming. Do these people not know that they are at the center of consumer culture? Did they not see the car ads during their shows? If they are not going to own up to their part of global warming what good is it for them to talk about it?
Larry David might drive a Prius, but what does his total environmental footprint look like? If you add all the money he made from car advertisements from Seinfeld, what does it look like? I am happy that Oprah did a show about global warming, but who is advertising on her show? How is Oprah going to spend the money she got from that show?
I am happy that Laurie David can pat herself on the back, but just getting these issues in the media does not really change anything. Hollywood is still making money off the business culture that is polluting. Until this changes, all of Laurie David's efforts are just window dressing.
