I actually care about my environment, and unfortunately can't satiate my concern with meaningless slogans or purchases. I see the "fair trade" coffee at the coffee house and wonder if fair means farmers were discriminated against based on issues completely unrelated to the quality and price of their coffee. When I see "environmentally friendlier," I can't help but wonder if this is like the recycling companies that collect waste in recycle bins and deposit it at the local landfill or the glorious CFL bulbs, which contain even more toxic materials than their traditional counterparts and often don't last much longer for several times the cost.

There are consequences to social engineering and one of those is that logic and value no longer play their worthy role in economics. The best company selling the best product doesn't win, but the company that can convince the buyer they care the most. And, by convince, I mean often they lie.

Marketing is selling an idea, not necessarily a product. If you sell sex you may deliver mass production beer. You may sell saving the planet while you deliver buying the same coffee beans from the same farmers with the same massive markups for the same corporation driven by the same big profits delivered in the same throw-away containers that fill yet more landfills.

Occasionally, my children bring home some new plan to save the planet by changing our behavior. It used to be a deprogramming process which shortly became a logical periodical discussion. I ask my children the same questions your parents should have asked you the first time you came up with a plan to save the planet. What facts back your plan? Where's the data? I seldom see any supporting evidence behind most earth conscious marketing.

So, are you actually saving the planet or just buying a lie?

CFL dangers NPR
CFL dangers MSNBC
Is Starbucks Coffee that Cares? Oxford