liquideve’s Recent Comments

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  The lesser evil

  While the "Green Tag NO!" contingent may be technically correct in discussing the flaws of the Green Tag system, I think it misses the best asset of the system: its simplicity and accessibility for "average" people.

  By "average" people I mean those who would like, in a generally well-meaning way, to help the environment, but would NEVER label themselves "greenies," start biking to work, or install their own solar panels. And would never, for that matter, read GRIST. Sorry, but the fact is, those people are never going to go off the grid, as blindpenguin advocates; and they're not going to boycott non-green industrial customers as Gene suggests, either.

  I know a lot of people like that, and I'd be surprised if you didn't. Then again, I'm sure there are some places where most people are bike-riding, protest-marching folks. But it sure ain't that way in Missouri, and most of my friends get a rather vacant expression when I start nattering about eco-topics. So when my recent purchase of a TerraPass for my car sparked some general interest, I was delighted.

  TerraPass essentially allows you to eliminate, through your purchase, an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to your car's annual emissions. It's a neat idea - and one that I think could really catch on with the socially-conscious, SUV-driving soccer mom set. Furthermore, Gene, it's a RECENT idea, that builds on the idea of Green Tags - with new ideas and products coming out, how can you possibly say that the concept has "failed" when it's still attracting interest?

  I think hard-core environmentalists are often a bit too quick in dismissing methods and ideas because they don't do enough, or don't do it fast enough. Look - we're not going to transform the energy industry overnight. In the meantime, I don't see why half-measures aren't a reasonable compromise. I care about the environment a LOT, but where I live, driving is a necessity. So I can continue to spew emissions into our atmosphere and do nothing, or I can spew emissions into our atmosphere and then pay $50 a year to effectively neutralize those emissions. That's MY either/or. Which do you prefer?

  Green Tags and related methods allow the "average" folks (who make up the VAST majority of our energy-guzzling country's population, of course) to do SOMETHING about their energy consumption without totally overhauling their lifestyles - which they are never going to do, anyway. A realistic attitude dictates doing what we can. Sure, my idealistic side wants industrial customers to be 100% green too, Gene - but is it really better, on balance, NOT to attempt to lower emissions while we're working on that? You can't stay with your head in the clouds too long in that situation - you'll choke on the smog.

  EveOn Umbra on Green Tags posted 4 years, 8 months ago 10 Responses

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  I'm not talented...

  ...so I'm not going to try to come up with something snappy. But I would like to point out that elevators are one of the more energy-efficient forms of mass transport available today, because much of their lifting power comes from counterweights. Not to mention that the densely populated, vertical environments of cities - where elevators thrive! - are some of the most environmentally responsible places to live. (See, for example, "Green Manhattan: Why New York is the greenest city in the U.S." by David Owen in the New Yorker, 10/18/04.)

  So yes, by all means take the stairs if you're able, but elevators are not the enemy. Big, sprawling, horizontal cities are.On An elevator pitch for environmentalism posted 4 years, 9 months ago 154 Responses

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  "Enviro" Appropriation

  I find the brevity and simplicity of "enviro" to be preferable to a lot of terms - "environmentalist" (too long), "green" (too many political associations), and my personal fave, "eco-freak" (sure, it rolls off the tongue, but...). But I think a contest to find a better term is a great idea. If Grist readers can come up with "pollutocrat," I'm sure they can knock this one out of the park.

  But I think it's more interesting to consider the whole concept of language appropriation. Minorities and marginalized groups have frequently been the target of disparaging monikers used by the elites. One response is for these marginalized groups to begin using those terms to describe themselves.

  The theory being, once a group has embraced a label, that label loses its power to hurt and disparage and instead becomes a term of empowerment. It may not be PC to list examples but think about some of the terms used to describe blacks, gays, women etc. in the past that are still used now, but used by the very groups they were intended to denigrate.

  So if our "adversaries" try to smack us around by calling us "enviros," maybe the best solution is to appropriate the term and call ourselves "enviros" with pride and fondness. It wouldn't be a very useful weapon against us after that.On Do you hate the word "enviros"? posted 4 years, 11 months ago 13 Responses