Friday, February 26, 2010
Patrick's Thoughts
Last night, I was doing some hard thinking (like always) and I came to a weird conclusion about the whole "green campaign" that is marketed just about all over the world. Kitty had mentioned about this and how it's like a big scam but I think it's more than just that. When we look at the marketing conglomerates today and how they feed off everything green and twist it to so it makes their product look 'greener,' we're not looking at the big picture. Basically the marketing of green is just that, it involves products. I feel like the only education people are getting about the environment is from the products being sold itself! It's like a new discovery that society stubbled upon on.......there's an environment!........now buy this product. What we need is environmental education for everyone and it has start at an early age. Just like social studies, math and biology, the Canadian government needs to create a mandatory program in schools that teaches about the very thing that keeps us alive, the biosphere. Children at a young age need to be taught that the biosphere is to be respected and cared for, like a living being. As you can tell, most parents probably don't know more than how to recycle when it comes to respecting the environment. As a child, how can you learn to respect it and love it when the environment is not taught in school and your parents don't know anything about it either. Im not saying that the present generation is a write off, Im saying that the public needs to be properly educated, either by educated professionals or by elders who have experienced the nature 'out there.' When you are born, there is not a little voice in your head that tells you, "see that tree, don't chop it down." Respect for anything arises from education. If there is a society somewhere that believes in cutting trees well maybe that society wont last long, ever heard of Easter Island? Having Walmart and Toyota telling us what is good for the environment is injustice on so many levels. Instead of buying green, the public needs to buy the words of teachers and people like David Suzuki who can tell you what is important to keep the human body alive and ensuring the existence of future generations.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Pat,
ReplyDeleteI just want to touch down on what you were saying about the commercial side of being "green". Although we need to have a clear understanding of what positive effects of being "green" brings to the environment, the unfortunate reality of this matter is that as much as we hate propaganda, it's what sells. Most of societie's citizens don't essentially care about what being "green" means but more about following the current trends. We like the idea of helping our environment, however, we don't really sit back at the end of the day and reflect on why we were "green" today, or how we contributed to the movement helped out in the least.
I'm all about the environmentalist movement however I am unfortunately a victim of the conceptual idea of the media's marketing schemes.
Yours truly,
The trend follower
I think exposure is also an important factor in regards to this topic. Aside from an in-class 'education' about nature/the environment, if people go through the course of their lives largely far and apart from the natural (non-man-made) world, these things become compartmentalised. it is then easier to fall into the trap you talk about, Patrick, wherein we only care about an issue because of how (or how much) it has been marketed, packaged and sold to us.
ReplyDeleteI just have a question: if people are educated at young ages of say like 4-15, then how effective will it be in instilling a belief system that has respect and pride for the environment? Will all those children (sorry to use that word) grow up to how we want to be? Unfortunately, and pardon me if I depress anyone, I doubt that too much of little kiddies, even if they are educated about it from early, will become "environmentalst" or even really have a mind to take action. They get incorporated into media and corporational values and often at least a few of them will not care. I'm not saying it won't be effective at all, it will just not have that long-term impact on EVERYONE.
ReplyDeleteHey Kitty, I gotta say thats a good come back. It's a good point. Maybe not all 'children' will take on the proper responsibility they should but maybe the whole idea of teaching respect for the environment needs to be as high on the scale as things like crime. In school and everywhere else we are taught not to mug old ladies and not to steal so maybe schools and parents should teach that throwing garbage on the street is the same. Obviously this is theory is a long shot. It would never work but it would be cool if that was actually how society saw things like that. Even if it was in place, there would still be a lot of criminals....garbage throwing criminals. Like you said, not just schools and parents would need to involved but rest of society and the core of morals would have to change as well. Time to find a new planet.
ReplyDeletePatrick
hahaha Time to find a new planet indeed.
ReplyDelete