Green is so Hott Right Now

For Oprah’s Earth Day episode this year, she invited Sophia Uliano, author of “Gorgeously Green” to share her philosophy with a studio audience. Sophia says organic farming helps the planet, so we should buy organic. According to Sophia, women are especially influential because they can communicate to their grocer that they want to see more organic on the shelves, and in the manner of supply and demand the store will comply. Its like housewives can save the planet. Really? At first, I thought this lady was being somewhat facetious, but check out her site. She's sincere.
Gorgeously Green

While I agree that individuals can help the planet, I am a little appalled at the kitschy gimmick of housewives going green. Didn’t we just set the feminist movement back forty years with this logo? The subservient, coquettish, pearl wearing, Hoover pushing housewife is going to save the planet? She kind of resembles a Tinkerbelle pinup, no? That’s expecting a lot from an archetype historically not encouraged to gain higher education or gainful financial independence by way of a career. But now by just buying groceries and cooking dinner on a regular basis, she is going to save the planet. That’s right, ladies, just keep cooking!!

Well, why not? Julia Roberts, who also appeared on the segment, (a typical American housewife) says she didn’t begin to care about the earth and going organic until she had three kids i.e. she birthed someone for whom she felt the earth was worth saving. As if to say that most of us don’t have people in our lives already that we would modify our lifestyle for in order that they may live better and longer. . interesting concept.

If anything, I would think that in the U.S., birth rates would be going down because of the economic “slowdown”. It is downright irresponsible to be procreating knowing that there are no available funds let alone natural resources to substantially support the next generation.

In reality, something akin to the opposite is occurring. The Washington Post published an article in December declaring the fertility rate in the United States had jumped 2 percent between 2005 and 2006. This means that on average, 2.1 babies are born to each woman. The rate indicates that the present generation is able to replace itself—great news for sociologists, not so great for ecologists. Fertility Rates

The same housewife that is doing all that green shopping is doing so to support 2.1 kids. That doesn’t deserve an award. Honestly, it’ her responsibility to help the planet if she wants to sustain the fruit of her loins.

According to the article, "We have a lot of population momentum in this country because we have so many young people who themselves are going to soon be having 2.1 children," said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington research organization. "We're going to be growing for quite some time at a fairly fast pace." But the U.S. is still in the lead when it comes to destroying natural resources and overall consumption. "The world is now consuming resources faster than the Earth can sustain over the longer term," said Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute. "Forests are shrinking. Fisheries are collapsing. Water tables are falling. Large parts of the world's grasslands are deteriorating. The U.S. is already disproportionately responsible for that because of our very high consumption levels."

Julia Roberts is in agreement. "You realize we do have a responsibility of our impact in every way to our kids, the way we talk to them and the example that we offer them and the things to teach them," she says. "There's such a wealth of knowledge now that we can educate ourselves with, and it's our responsibility." Well, duh. But why did it take a cartoon character, Oprah, and a wave of trendy organic products (Organic White cheddar Cheeto's anyone?) for people to buy into that concept? Al Gore has been preaching this stuff for decades already. That’s why they gave him a Nobel Prize.

Supporting organic agriculture makes sure the food we harvest for today’s consumption doesn’t destroy the resources we need in order to eat tomorrow. It’s essentially farming and harvesting in a manner that doesn't kill the planet. Organic=Earth TLC

There are people who devote their entire lives to the study of making sure the Earth is protected and lives long after us. Those people really care about the planet in a global way, i.e. outside the realm of themselves and the small bundle of people they may have personally birthed. This is bigger than the housewife and her subdivision. Vandana Shiva, ecofeminist and alterglobalist didn’t earn that title by asking her grocer for more organic alternatives in the snack food aisle. See more

I completely understand decreasing your carbon footprint, and doing your small part to make a big change, heck that’s why I’m an Obama supporter ☺, but if you really want to have the right to say you are making some sort of contribution in this world, you kind of have to own that role and hold yourself accountable. It will not suffice to be a weekend dabbler.

Americans think they are so self important but in fact any one person is nothing more than a tear drop dissolving in the ocean . . . even if you were looking for it, you couldn’t find it. So go ahead, go green, pay your grocer so you can have a cloth grocery bag to put your Skippy in, but be realistic about your contribution. We all get exactly what we ask for in this country. People started getting more genetically modified foods because the industry had to meet the demand for it. And honestly, most people are still okay with eating the enlarged breast meat that comprises McDonalds chicken nuggets. There doesn’t seem to be any complaints. But then all of a sudden, someone in fad land decides going green is supposed to be cool and now we are all asking our grocery to go green. Can no on in this place think for them self at all? Do we live in a world of Paris Hilton wannabes and simple-minded lemmings whose only motivation is to give the appearance of social consciousness- or in the example of Paris, mental consciousness?

Even Paris Hilton has a guy who does her environmental thinking for her. His name is Adrian Grenier. "He's helping her pick out a home that she can easily convert into an environmentally friendly living space," the source tells E! Online's "Planet Gossip" co-host Tina Dirmann. "Adrian has really been teaching Paris a lot about what people can do to help the environment and to just live their lives in a more 'green-friendly' way because it's a cause he's very involved in, and, so far, Paris is listening."

Adrian told her, "You're the most photographed woman in the world. Think what you could do if you used that attention to bring light to a cause.'" the source added. Paris Hilton going green

The people who really care are finally able to drum up enough buzz that the Hollywood glitterati puppets that stand in as role models for the majority of young America will be led to go green, if for no other reason than to be in style. The irony of course is that the generation being raised on this glamour pop fanaticism is the very same generation that most needs to conserve those resources for their own sustenance, and by extension that of their projected progeny. Granted the ends justify the means. I repeat: The ends justify the means. But is it really sufficient to educate people just enough so that they obey you, but not enough for them to tap into their own reasoning and make educated decisions? Is that how we want to treat our fellow earth dwellers--like a bunch of mindless drones who can be manipulated by whatever fad strikes the fancy of the general populous? The answer is yes. That is if we want them to help us save the planet anyway. "Because I said so" never seemed to make as much sense as it does right now. Time is wasting, and who wants to explain to Paris Hilton how deforestation works? So let me just say this: Green is so hott right now (yes with two "T"s) and I’m gonna put that on a baby T.