Since the inconvenient truth of climate change has hit home, we have all become fledgling eco-warriors. But how many of us feel virtuous making the little changes at the expense of making real lifestyle sacrifices that the threat of climate change demands?
I may feel like an earth goddess using green cleaning products and wearing my organic cotton tee from Sportsgirl, not realising I have actually become an ‘eco-adopter’, to use a term coined by UK market research company Target Group Index. They surveyed 25,000 people about their travel habits, revealing that the most environmentally conscious people are often also the biggest polluters.
Author of the report, Geoff Wicken, explains that for eco-adopters ‘their adherence to the green cause is mostly limited to small gestures…they are most likely to be members of an environmental organisation, buy green products such as detergents, recycle and have a keen interest in green issues.’ But these ‘green’ consumers have some of the biggest carbon footprints because they are 7 per cent more likely than the general population to travel by air and 4 per cent more likely to own a car.
Currently, ‘green’ is a form of branding and a status symbol, and the danger is that eco-adopters believe they are greener than they are because of public relations spin around green consumer items. We want the kudos without the sacrifice, safe in the knowledge that ‘it’s the little things that count’ without having to overhaul our lifestyles.
Affluenza author, Clive Hamilton, says that green consumerism allows people to create ‘a noble greenie identity...so it continues to promote the whole idea of self-creation through consumption.’ Our energy saving light bulbs and cotton shopping bags proclaim to the world that we are cool, that we are eco-chic!
Eco-chic is a big business. eBay recently launched WorldofGood.com, because eBay’s general manager of the project, Robert Chatwani, estimates that ‘social change consumers’ who drive the eco-chic trend worldwide spend $45 billion on green products annually. And, ebay wants a slice of it. The site is described as ‘a trusted platform where individuals can create positive change through commerce’. But when we compare the amount spent on eco-chic to the $23 million that Malawi identified it would need to cope with the effects of global warming, it is clear that spending green does not make us angels.
This is not to say that eco-chic doesn’t have a place. It is true that small changes add up. However, real eco-chic to me is not a fashion statement but a commitment to making significant changes in all aspects of our lifestyle.
The ultimate in eco-chic must be the former Body Shop CEO, Dame Anita Roddick, whose business was one of the first to support fair trade and collaborated with Greenpeace on a campaign for green energy. For Roddick, being committed to the environment was not about jumping on a bandwagon but a conscious decision to lead by example.
We can start by being genuine green consumers. Despite what green marketing promises, going green will not be ‘super convenient’, it will require sacrifice—which, as the recent furore over he government’s proposed emissions trading scheme indicates, many Australians may not give into easily. It is so much easier to buy ‘green’ shopping bags at the supermarket, than it is to only eat local produce. But as anti eco-chic environmental activist and journalist George Moniston says, ‘no political challenge can ever be met by shopping.’
I recently attended the Brightest Young Minds Summit (which aims to foster leadership in young Australians), where Professor Ann Henderson-Sellers addressed us on the immediacy of the climate change threat, concluding her speech with, ‘and now I want to know what you are going to do about what I have just told you.’ The answers were as varied as they were inspiring and included car pooling, going vegetarian and not buying fruit and vegetables from overseas. If we started thinking of lifestyle changes rather than lifestyle accessories, we might be able to envisage a future where we will have the pride of knowing that we were the generation that tackled climate change.
How do I know this?
Pink, Brian. 2008 ‘Australian’s Environment: Issues and Trends’, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 11 July,
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78
caca257061001cc588/24aacaeba73f798cca2573c600104943!OpenDocument
Monibot, G., 2007. ‘Green consumerism will not save the biosphere’,
The Guardian, 24 July,
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/07/24/eco-junk/
John Fien, Matthew Bentley and Cameron Neil, 2005, ‘Sustainable Consumption: Young Australians as Agents of Change’, Prepared for the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme, November,
http://www.facs.gov.au/internet/facsinternet.nsf/aboutfacs/
programs/youth-sustainable_consumption.htm
Cook, Dewey, 2007. ‘Young take on environment but it’s still looks that count’,
The Age, 4 December,
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/looks-climate-worry-young/2007/12/03/1196530575652.html
‘Climate change diabolical’, 2008,
Sydney Morning Herald, 5 July,
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/climate-crisis-diabolical/2008/07/04/1214951014040.html
‘Survey shows eco-warriors are worst polluters’, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/13/eagreens113.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox
Revkin, Andew C. 2007 ‘The climate divide: Rich nations find it easier to adapt’,
International Herald Tribune, April 2,
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/02/news/climate.php
Olsen, Stefanie. 2008 “eBay to unveil fair-trade marketplace”,
http://www.news.cnet.com, May 20
