its easy to be green when you're poor.
If you're able to do swish things like... buy cars, own your own home, go on holidays, then, well... you're rich... in real terms... of course, being modestly wealthy and well educated means you will suffer the agonies of wanting cake and wanting to eat that cake too, especially when we live in a society that says eating that cake is sin...
life sucks, doesn't it..? We have this idea that we're principled, and ethical, but are we really?
If we were then we wouldn't use planes- we would holiday closer to home...We wouldn't have cars, we would use public transport, bikes and feet...We wouldn't buy anything other than fair trade- underpants, furniture, jewellery, ornaments, food...we would only use "organic" or "eco-friendly" products- toothpaste, hair dye, toilet cleaner, paint...We would watch who we bank with, we would grow out own food, we would have solar panels and collect rainwater and live- "off-grid"...
bye bye hamburgers... bye bye internet... bye bye hair straighteners... bye bye nail varnish...microwave...exotic holidays, new cars...Tescos...
and, most likely... bye bye life, when you turned up for work looking like a tramp, two hours late because the rail service cancelled your train, bye bye friends- all your time is now spent skip-diving with your Freegan buddies and waxing old pubes to make organic dental floss, and eventually, bye bye life...
unless, of course, you can afford to live off-grid, without slaving for the Man, and still afford your 150£ fair trade denims. Unless you can afford to buy organic and fair trade and eco-friendly everything. Unless you can afford solar panels and generators. The majority cannot. The majority have to work, often miles away from where they live. They have to endure nylon corporate wear. They cannot buy the A grade washing machine or the eco-friendly "Pious" car. They don't buy the fair trade organic cotton t-shirt because it costs 4 times the price of the cheapo. Yes, the purchaser is the shirt is made in a sweatshop, but, on the flip side, if nobody buys those cheapo t-shirts 23,000 garment workers in China and India lose their jobs.
Personally, I think guilt is a killer sin...
Instead, we should just accept that there would have to be a global revolution before the world changed enough so we all lived the so-called right way, 100% of the time.
Then you have to accept that will not happen.
It is the governments responsibility to lead by example. Hoping that people, out of the goodness of their hearts, will deny their own desires for the sake of others? Ridiculous. The government needs to lay down the law, but it won't, because there are always other priorities.
