Green Greed

by Michael Edwards

Environmental Organizations No Better Than Politicians

I was at Laura Turner Sydel’s house for a Defenders of Wildlife fundraising event about a year ago. The event was held to help raise money and awareness for a frog endangered because of a bacteria, which is flourishing due to global warming. During Jeff Corwin's speech, he thanked Clorox Green Works for sponsoring Defenders of Wildlife. My heart sank. Then he made a very distasteful joke, something to the effect that it’s a perfect alliance because bleach kills the bacteria that is killing the frogs. As soon as the laughter died down, I said (loudly enough for at least half the room to hear), “Yeah, and it kills the frogs and everything else, too. This is sad…”

   I left. I have since had little interest in attending this kind of social function.
   Before the Defenders of Wildlife incident, I was at an environmental convention where we learned that Proctor and Gamble, the sponsor for said event, is making radical changes to their company in order to save the environment. Those changes did not include finding safer ingredients for their products, reducing their emissions, or even offering a more ecologically sustainable line of products. They simply concentrated their most popular detergents like Tide. They spent a half hour bragging that since they are so massive any tiny little thing they do, like reducing the amount of packaging their products require by 10 to 20 percent, saves millions of gallons of water.
   It’s not surprising, since this is the company that produces Dawn dish detergent and markets this toxic detergent as the savior of animals affected by the Gulf oil spill while they continue to test most of their products, including the Dawn dish detergent, on animals!
   It wouldn’t surprise me if every single major company ever accused of any significant or memorable environmental degradation was also guilty of greenwashing. When companies are not forced to pay for the damage they do, paying money to market themselves as green

is almost always cheaper than actually changing their business practices to be more ecologically sustainable. And what better way to do this than to sponsor and support the very organizations that crusade against environmental damage?
   Two of my favorite environmental protection organizations that to the best of my knowledge will never sell out, are Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Oceana. These organizations have tremendous integrity. But I admit, I have been surprised in the past, and I’m sure I’ll be surprised again. Why? Because people are greedy. And non-profit organizations can be as greedy as the corporations they stand against, because they, too, are run by people.
   What’s an environmental group to do? If all the other environmental groups are taking money from corrupt, dirty greenwashing businesses , how will ethical environmental groups survive? How will they compete? Will they all be replaced by shells for big business?
   This is a time when we have a very short window of opportunity to turn things around before our environment is irrevocably changed by our short- sighted, profit-driven choices. Many of the organizations that claim to fight for our future are as corrupt as the majority of our politicians, bought and paid for by

corporate money. Our country, our world, is under the control of special interests. Our environment is under siege.
The truth is, morality takes a back seat to financial success. Almost all of us are guilty of it. When was the last time you saw a poll that showed strong ethics as one of the most attractive qualities in a mate? It's as if most of society heard the "Greed is Good" speech by Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street, and forgot his character went to prison.
Environmental Greed

Green Greed

Issue 6 | July/August 2010

pg 9

   What do we do?
   A rant is one thing, but solutions are what we need, right?
   The solution, the only way I believe we can end this cycle of corruption that has been spinning out of control for years with no end in sight, is to stop being gullible. Stop believing that because it comes in a green package it’s environmentally friendly. We need to take some time out of our incredibly busy, consumer-driven lives to do a little bit of thinking before we purchase.
   Take Monsanto for instance. They sell organic Miracle Grow fertilizer. People buy

this fertilizer because they are familiar with Monsanto, which equals trust (the devil you know…), and they think they are supporting a sustainable movement when they are really supporting a company that is lobbying to label genetically modified seeds and toxic pesticides and herbicides as “organic.”
   Corporations are like people. They are greedy, and they don’t change unless they absolutely have to. The only way they will be forced to change is if it becomes unprofitable to try to fool the individual consumer. Remember that every corporation has an obligation to be as profitable as possible.
   If a company that has been polluting our planet and our bodies for years comes out with a supposedly green alternative, that’s great. It shows that people are demanding change. But if the company still sells a line of products that pollutes our environment or continues to employ environmentally damaging production practices with complete reckless abandon, then go support another, most likely smaller, company. On second thought, why not restrict our purchases to organic, green businesses that have never polluted our environment?
   Smaller companies run by idealistic individuals need our support. And yes, there are a few larger companies out there that still do more good than harm, like Seventh

Generation. But don’t be fooled by marketing strategies. Burt’s Bees appears to be a small mom and pop company, but Clorox owns them now. Stoneyfield Yogurt was bought out by Dannon. Odwalla is owned by Pepsi.
We, as consumers, need to stay on our toes. We need to stay informed. We need to stay educated. We need to vote with our dollars.

Michael Edwards is editor-in-chief of Green Lifestyle Magazine and Organic Lifestyle Magazine.

Green Greed

Issue 6 | July/August 2010

pg 10