Updated. Being "Green" Is Just Too Trendy...It's Making me Sick

Just when you thought eco-morality had gone too far with designer non-plastic hand/grocery bags here is one more thing you should feel guilty about: Your sex life:

For safer, baby-free sex, nothing beats a latex condom. Vegans looking for a latex option (though derived from trees, most latex contains a milk enzyme) can check out Glyde condoms. The jury is still out as to whether latex condoms are biodegradable and what effects additives and lubricants might have on biodegradability. Polyurethane condoms are essentially plastic and not biodegradable. Once they've done their job, condoms are best sent to the landfill. Flushing condoms down the toilet is definitely no good as they clog pipes, treatment plants, and rivers. So let's face it, reduce, reuse, recycle just doesn't apply when it comes to the rubbers. If you have a steady partner and you've both been tested for STDs, the pill is an option that can cut out the condom waste. Be aware that there are rising concerns about the hormones from birth control pills ending up in waterways and having serious effects on wildlife, both from pills flushed down the toilet, and from women's urine.... For monogamous couples not interested in any (more) kids, sterilization can be an option to consider.... Of course the biggest ecological impact resulting from sex is a baby. Human population is arguably the most threatening force on Earth, and with human population expected to reach 8.3 billion by 2030, reproducing is perhaps the largest impact any of us have.

So condoms are bad, the Pill is bad, increasing the human population is bad, so according to the TreeHuggers going sterile is the most enviromentally friendly option.

The environmental movement is so trendy nowadays that is has understandably increased the demand for products. But could someone please explain to me how chopping down all those trees to now fill an entire bookshelf section dedicated to "how to be Green" in Chapters, is actually helping the movement.

Green licence plates, Green Prime Ministers (perhaps a different shade in light of recent events), Green weddings, Raising a Green Baby, etc..

GAH! I am sick of it. I used to like the colour green. Now my favourite colour is blue.

It's a shame really. While I am starting to make an effort to not use plastic bags, this green movement is actually completely turning me off with the lack of sense of events like Live Earth. While there is nothing wrong with promoting more reading, I just think it's ironic that the same groups that want to conserve and reduce consumption are the ones that have created all of this new consumption.

What's even more sad is that what other issues are being left behind.

Five or ten years ago environmentalists were just as passionate about conservation but no one was listening to them. And they were getting a lot less funding for R&D.

Poverty activists five or ten years ago were just as passionate and still no one is listening to them.

Sure there are programs (and entire Crown Corporations) to help with affordable housing, drug use, job training, education all of which would help with poverty and homelessness.

But Canadians aren't on board. I guess helping the poor just isn't as interesting that megablock buster Oscar winning DVDs or 400$ bags or 3 books on how you can be a better person.

So I guess, being Green is just more sexy, then helping the poor.




Update:

Just a few after thoughts. I think some of the hippies are getting it, that capitalism will actually help get their issues to the top of people's priorities:<

Mazar Mortazavi, principal of TAS DesignBuild, an award-winning Toronto developer of condominiums and town homes, is so committed to the green movement he has traded in his beloved Range Rover for a hybrid vehicle.

"As a builder, you have to live it, you have to breath it and you have to walk the talk," he says. "Consumer demand is forcing the housing market to change. Traditionally, developers have not been innovators in the housing market. Now, for the first time, there is this shift where they are trying to understand what is going on and introduce change before the consumer asks for it."

"This is going to be the century's major socio-cultural shift," he predicts. "It is a mindset change and the implications go far and wide.

The green home groundswell is soaring as builders, suppliers, bankers and buyers sign on with a growing environmental sustainability movement that is gathering momentum across the country.