Environmentalism starts away from home

So I'm totally stealing from Carolyn's blog and posting a link to this article from the Onion, which I think is brilliant.

Though it's a tongue and cheek essay, it alludes to a point that I'm always harping on - you can do more good for the environment by spending your time campaigning for environmentally savy candidates than by buying slightly better-for-the-environment items at the store.

I used to room with a really rich hippie, whose parents' state department careers paid for her extravagent environmentalism. Our home was filled with things like $9 bottles of "organic" face wash, organic herbs in cute containers, a fridge full of ridiculously-priced co-op groceries. She spent her time painstakingly preparing homecooked "earthy" meals, mulching, recycling 8 different kinds of materials, volunteering on an all-organic farm, and growing sad little vegetables in the front yard. Needless to say, she did NOT have a full-time job. I mean, I believe in being the change you want to see, but this sort of thing to me doesn't seem like natural living so much as another manefestation of American excess. If you could take all of the time and money she spends on this earth-friendly lifestyle, and somehow funnel it back in time to Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, then it might have been useful.

Super Wal-Marts aren't going to start going bankrupt because a few rich environmentalists grow their own veggies. Real change will involve changing public opinion on a larger scale, and most importantly, making it easier for people to follow their green leanings. The arena best suited for this is politics, not your pocketbook.

Middle class Americans are deluded into thinking that their dollar, not their vote, has the most power. They believe that if they consistently buy earth-friendly items, they can influence the market, and companies will produce more of these kinds of items. But what American company does not employ crazy-cheap foreign labor, does not truck and fly your items from ten different places, using massive amounts of fossil fuels, or employ other harmful social and environmental practices? True, there are some, but the prices are so high as to be prohibitive to many Americans. My friends, who make 50-70,000 a year can afford to put SOME of their money where their mouths are. But even these middle class friends don't have the time or money to always buy from their local co-op, always check out the companies they buy from, etc. This kind of diligence is the privelege of the very upper class, a very small percentage of the population at large. The effect of a rich environmentalist on the market is small indeed, and the effect of a middle class environmentalist is even less significant.

However, a large portion of the population, from all walks of life, want better environmental policies. If we vote for candidates who enact policies which enable these people to more freely follow their environmental leanings, real change can start.