Inside a
renovated movie theater near downtown Los Angeles, lamps
assembled from thousands of discarded silkworm cocoons light
up tables of recycled teak.
The FordBrady
gallery--owned by former bicycle racers Willard Ford
(Harrison's son) and John Brady--champions the
green aesthetic. But, as environmentalists, Ford and
Brady know that buying a recycled teak table is less
responsible than keeping the table you've got (or
picking up a used one). Building, marketing, and
shipping furniture, no matter what it's made
of, are energy- and resource-hogging activities.
Deep down, we
know that really being green means buying less and making
do, but we also know it's more fun to go shopping.
Green products like hybrid vehicles and the latest
refillable water bottles let us have it both
ways--spending money while racking up
"environmental cred." Forget
Dumpster-diving--most of us would rather be spreegans
than freegans.
Green has gone
from a color to a movement to a style. The trouble is,
styles don't last. And we can't let
environmentalism become a fashion victim.
Some of us do a
lot for the planet just by being gay: We bring the world
fewer McMansions and fewer backyards than if we were
straight. (No gay person has bought a riding
mower--ever.) We also bring fewer babies. (I
have to admit, having children was the best--and also
the most environmentally destructive--thing
I've ever done.) Add a high disposable income
and exquisite sensitivity to trends, and gay consumers have
done their share to make green products cool.
The problem with
that is too many green products are designed to let us
feel good without doing good. This spring Lincoln unveiled
the MKT, a luxury sedan that nods in the direction of
sustainability with--no kidding--carpet
woven from banana fibers. Coke is turning surplus can tabs
into messenger bags ($175) and broken bottles into earrings
($45), for sale in the Eco-Fashion section of the
Coca-Cola online store. Apparently using biodegradable
soap to do the dishes is only one form of
green-washing.
Of course, there
are some purchases (and purchasers) that could never
seem green. Media mogul David Geffen is the co-owner of a
yacht with 82 rooms. Picture a five-story building as
long as 1 1/2 football fields. No amount of banana
fiber carpet and silkworm-cocoon lamps can make that
anything less than an environmental horror. Its name, Rising
Sun, should be changed to Rising Oceans.
While Geffen may
deserve credit for his candor, he could take a lesson
from my boyfriend, the professor, who decided not to replace
his Ford Taurus after it burst into flames on
Christmas Eve. Since January, Chuck has commuted to
work on a secondhand bicycle with saddlebags that allow
him to carry books and groceries. Not only has he reduced
his carbon footprint to the width of a skinny
tire--he shops a lot less too.
"When you
don't have a car, you think more about everything you
buy," he says. "You pick up smaller
quantities. And impulse purchases like large bottles
of Diet Coke are out."
Less disciplined
than Chuck, I would have taken a halfway measure,
replacing the Taurus with a Toyota Prius. But even the Prius
isn't perfect--its battery requires
nickel from a Canadian mine said to be a serious
polluter; and the nickel is shipped from Canada to Europe to
China to Japan before making its way to U.S. showrooms.
Sure, 45 miles
per gallon is better than 20. And buyers of hybrid cars
argue that at least they're sending a message to
manufacturers about the kind of cars Americans are
looking for. But they're only sending that
message if they give up their other vehicles. A Prius that
shares a driveway with a Ford Expedition sends the
message that buying "green" is just a
new way of accessorizing.
Truth is, the
worst polluters aren't cars or even yachts but
buildings--which contribute more greenhouse gases than
transportation and manufacturing combined. So
it's no surprise that eco-fashion has reached
the design and construction industries. There isn't
an architecture magazine in North America that
hasn't done a "green
issue"--featuring products like bamboo
cabinetry and insulation made from recycled blue
jeans.
But there are
countless competing definitions of green design. Some focus
on cutting energy use, some on improving indoor air quality,
and some on reducing the use of nonrenewable
resources. Select one goal and the others may suffer.
(If you make your building tighter to reduce heat
loss, you'll also make the indoor air more toxic.)
It's a dilemma, says Steven Lenard, a city
planner and a volunteer for GreenHomeNYC.
"Unfortunately, there's no way to weigh an
extra ton of CO2 in the atmosphere against an extra
part per million of formaldehyde in your house against
an extra acre of rainforest cut down. You have to choose
which issues are most important to you and make decisions
accordingly."
But making those
choices requires more data processing than most of us
can manage. Which gives us a perfect excuse for doing
nothing. As does our tendency to think short-term.
Solar panels may pay for themselves in 20 years, but
who wants to stay in the same house till 2028?
Some days, I
share the view of British scientist and prognosticator James
Lovelock, who believes the earth has passed the tipping
point and, therefore, any steps we take are
"almost certainly a waste of time and
energy."
Other days,
I'm not that glum. But if you are, you might as well
go shopping. D