The greenwashing of toxic consumer products

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Have you noticed over the last year how virtually every large corporation is trying to make consumers believe their products are "Earth friendly?" Everything from toxic cosmetics to smog-producing cars are now being positioned as "green" products, and just recently I actually saw a package of mercury-containing compact fluorescent lights with a marketing logo that claimed the product was, "Helping protect the planet!" I have yet to understand the logic of how buying and throwing away mercury-contaminated products has any real benefit to the planet.

Defenders of CFLs claim these lights are good for the environment because even though they contain toxic mercury, they use less energy than incandescent lights. And since coal-fired power plants release mercury into the atmosphere, the use of less energy means less overall mercury is being introduced to the environment. While this sounds sensible at first, it's still junk logic: How does harming the planet slightly less than before deserve a "green" claim of any kind? If I poke you with ten sharp sticks, and then reduce it to just five sharp sticks, I cannot claim that my actions are suddenly "good for your health!" It's still a harmful action with negative consequences.

Corporations, it seems, can claim that practically anything is eco-friendly or environmentally friendly, regardless of all the toxic chemicals it contains or produces. That's what this article is all about: "Greenwashing" or the practice of corporations claiming their products are green when, in reality, they're not at all impressive as eco-friendly products.

I recently saw paper plates positioned as "eco-friendly biodegradable tableware." I remember when we used to just call them "paper plates" and we avoided buying them because we wanted to save the trees. But today, paper plates are positioned as green living products. Fascinating how things shift so quickly, isn't it? (Click here to see my CounterThink Cartoon on this topic...)

Nowhere is greenwashing more overhyped than in the ethanol biofuels industry, where gullible consumers are being told that we can simply farm our way out of an oil crisis by -- get this -- converting most of our food into fuel! Ethanol from corn is so energy inefficient that it takes almost exactly one barrel of oil from somewhere else to farm, harvest, process and produce one barrel of oil equivalent energy from corn. In other words, it's just a massive U.S. energy shell game with absolutely no net gain in energy production, but a huge net loss in food production. Corn prices are already skyrocketing because of the ramp up in ethanol production from corn.

The only people promoting ethanol production from corn are corn farmers, politicians or complete idiots. Some people are all three.

But let's face it: Consumers like to buy products that they think are "green" in some way, even if the green-ness of those products is highly exaggerated or even entirely fictitious. Why? Because it removes their guilt for driving SUVs, eating meat products and spraying pesticides on their lawns. Somehow, buying a little corn ethanol and a few packages of paper plates puts it all back into balance for these people -- folks who live remarkably unsustainable lifestyles that would require five Earths to support if everyone lived that way. Simply eating meat products is so destructive to the environment that you could actually do more to reduce global warming by going vegetarian than by ditching your car.

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