Friday, February 7, 2014

Ignorance is Bliss

I've never been one to care about things that important people care about so I'm not huge into the whole globalization thing. Or the whole politics thing. Or any of the other big words that are used in all of these fancy writings. I did happen to enjoy "Buying into the Green Movement" by Alex Williams though. He's kind of sassy, and I like it. The authors purpose is to let people know that buying "green" stuff or building a massive house made of "green" stuff isn't going to save the planet and bring back Adam and Eve's impeccable Earth. I do think that he succeeds in convincing his intended audience. I believe that his audience includes those who believe that they are "buying into the green movement" and those who are just seeing the "green" movement happen before their eyes. It basically surrounds us now due to the increase in popularity of organic foods and hybrid cars. A good example that he uses talks about how it is not enough to build a vacation home of recycled lumber because the real solution would be to only own one home. He uses a funny analogy when he says that these millions of people are just like a person who would sit in front of a box of fat-free chocolate cookies and eat the whole thing, avoiding fat but taking in a ton of calories. He really proves his point about the fact that so many people think that they are doing fabulous things for our Earth when really, they are just quitting one thing to start another hurtful thing. He definitely uses numbers to also prove his point when speaking of the amount of products purchased and the amount of Americans who purchase them. I'm exciting to dive into this article and see what else I can criticize and learn about! Ignorance will no longer be bliss I guess.

2 comments:

  1. I too like to see the tone or attitude of the author but at times I find myself either really liking them or strongly disliking them (disliking only because my mother taught me that the word hate was an ugly word and never to use it).

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  2. That sounds like an interesting article. I read somewhere about guy who takes private airplane somewhere and buys carbon offsets so equals out his environmental impact. I don't remember the exact story but it was something like that.

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