Do you think using a reusable bag makes you an environmentalist? Sure it helps, but the reality is that many of us are eco-hypocrites. We want to be green and reduce our carbon footprint, but we are not quite ready to give up our luxuries or maybe we just don’t understand how our North American lifestyles contribute to climate change.
Time to ask yourself are you an eco-hypocrite or an environmentalist? We have exposed the top eco-hypocrisies - find out how you rate.
Reusable Bag Environmentalists
Do you drive to the supermarket in your gas guzzling SUV and then proudly enter the grocery store with a reusable bag to purchase a ‘carbon’-ton of processed food, meat, and strawberries grown in distant lands?
Using reusable cotton bags is a good first step and does reduce plastic in the landfill and reduces the use of petroleum—a non-renewable resource. However, you would probably make more of an impact if you stopped driving the SUV (or any other petroleum based vehicle) and adopted a meat-free local diet.
Car Driving Environmentalists
You cannot be an environmentalist and drive a gasoline powered car. Transportation is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and let’s be frank, the majority of us live in communities where we could use public transport, ride a bicycle, walk, use a scooter/motorcycle or even carpool. But we don’t. Instead, we want the convenience of having our own vehicle.
There are an estimated 600 million personal vehicles driving around on the planet. Each litre of gasoline used by a car produces 2.3kg of carbon dioxide. The Sierra Club USA explains that ‘the average car emits about 6.3 tons of CO2 over a year — and the average SUV or pickup emits around 8.2 tons.’ Worldwide, this adds up to an enormous quantity of carbon dioxide created just from vehicular transportation.
Meat Eating Environmentalist
How can you say you are an environmentalist when you keep eating meat? The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Meat is the most resource costly form of food because livestock waste most of the energy and protein value of their feed in digestion and bodily maintenance,’ reports Compassion in World Farming (CIWF).
The National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science reports producing a kilogram of beef results in greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to an estimated 36.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide. And did we mention the water footprint of beef and chicken? It takes 15,500 litres of water to produce 1kg (2.2lbs) of beef and 3,900 litres for just 1kg (2.2lbs) of chicken meat. There is no such thing as an eco-steak or green McNuggets.
Airplane Using Environmentalists
How can you care about the environment and still use an airplane? An Aviation and Global Climate Change study, from the UK-based Friends of the Earth, found air travel to be the world’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. Their study indicates the world’s 16,000 commercial jet aircraft generate more than 600 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. Perhaps most shocking is that ‘…aviation generates nearly as much CO2 annually as that from all human activities in Africa’. Time to rethink that vacation to Mexico or Hawaii.
Baby Making Environmentalist
How can you be green when you keep making kids? Part of our eco-crisis is the result of too many people using too many resources. Not creating more children is particularly important if you are living in one of the top ten polluting nations in the world. From diapers to baths to clothes to cars to airplane trips, the carbon footprint of a North American child is usually as much as two to three times the average carbon footprint of a child in a developing nation. Two children in Africa will consume fewer resources and produce less CO2 than just one American child. Adoption is the eco-choice.
Eco-Celebrity Environmentalist
This has got to be the ultimate in oxymoron. It is tedious to listen to well-meaning celebrities encouraging ‘normal folk’ to be green when their carbon footprints are so large from all their airplane trips, overseas vacations, elaborate wardrobes, hairdressers and personal stylists, catered parties, big houses, heated driveways, swimming pools, etc., etc.
Sure celebs like Leonardo Dicaprio and Sheryl Crow mean well, but give us a break; they use a hundred times more resources than the normal American and yet lecture to the ‘little folk’ about installing solar panels or using less toilet paper. Their celebrity does not give them the right to wax on sustainability while simultaneously overconsuming resources.
Soy Eating Environmentalists
Do you get a smug look on your face every time you reach for the soy? After all, you are a vegetarian. How cool is that? Sure it is very cool to alleviate animal suffering and limit the greenhouses gases associated with ruminant animals, but there is nothing cool about consuming genetically modified soy grown in the Brazilian Rainforest.
Considering that 90% of the soy crop in American is Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Soy Beans, remember that every time you reach for non-organic, gmo soy you are supporting Monsanto (the largest producer of Frankenfoods in the world). And considering that soy crops also contribute to deforestation in the Rainforest (Brazil is the largest exporter of soy in the world), it just might be time to wipe the smug look off your face.
Big Home Environmentalists
We all know Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Edward Norton are doing a lot to raise awareness about climate change, but there simply are not enough resources in the world for everyone to live in a big home like these eco-public figures and celebrities. Even if they make their houses energy efficient, it still takes a lot of resources to build, renovate, furnish, clean, heat, cool, etc. their mansions. We all have to consume less. “Overconsumption is the mother of all environment problems. If we want to solve our environmental problems we need to solve our problems of consumption,” explains Buy Nothing Day founder Kalle Lasn.
VW Van Environmentalists
Are you one of those people that still think it is cool to drive around in an old VW Van? Does it make you feel free? Green? Well, wake up. There is nothing green about old VW Vans (except maybe if you convert one to run on biodiesel). The original gas engine VW Vans only gets around 17mpg (7.2kms/liter), whereas a Toyota Prius gets 46mpg (19.5km/liter). Time to buy a bicycle.
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