It Isn't Easy Being Green

As people assemble on the National Mall to celebrate Earth Day today, the idea that man-made global warming is threatening our future seems a foregone conclusion.  But even the left-leaning New York Times recently featured an opposing view from famous physicist Freeman Dyson.  Keith Lockitch, a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, has been campaigning against environmentalism for a while now, and I encourage you to look back today at his 2007 article discussing the roots of the “green” movement.  Lockitch writes:

It isn't news that environmentalism has gone mainstream in a big way--with organic food in every grocery store, hybrid cars on every freeway, and every mass-market magazine declaring green the "new black." More than ever before, consumers are buying into environmentalist ideology--and buying products that purport to impact nature less, in order to impact nature less.

One would think that serious environmentalists would be thrilled about this trend--thrilled that the public seems willing to take ecological marching orders and do its duty to the planet. But they aren't: A backlash against "buying green" has arisen in environmentalist circles, with critics disparaging the new eco-consumers as "light greens," and condemning the "Cosmo-izing of the green movement."

Surprising? Not really. Not if one grasps the deeper meaning of environmentalism.

Read the rest here.

Photo by Katherine.