"Eco-friendly" is everywhere!!

“Living lightly on the planet and reducing your environmental impact becomes, paradoxically, a consumer product growth industry. “
--Michael Maniates

Maniates claims that eco-friendly and green consumption is only helpful for the industry and we are encouraged to help them. Since it is eco awareness week (I think), I see a lot of eco- advertisements on TV, newspaper, city paper, and magazine articles. News anchors and even celebrities talks about being eco-friendly. What those usually tell us is that, what is good and what people should do or buy. We’ve learned Maniates perspective as a different view from these. Whether or not people who see the green advertisement take his view importantly, I think that his view should introduce to them and acknowledge. It seems like to me that many people believe that they are making contribute by doing what they were told with no doubt.

“Solutions to our bigger challenges are being found by those closest to the problem, applying their experience, values, and common sense; drawing in the expert or the authority as a partner, not as a superior.”
--Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé

I think that this quotation can be applied to our situation today that we are facing to the issue of environment such as global warming. Global warming issue has been discussed but the United States and Australia has decided not to join the Kyoto Protocol, and the protocol itself has still many issues such as expensive costs. Some are already showing motivation to work on next protocol even the current one has just started to implement from this year. To deal with the global warming issue, I think that the quotation is giving good advice for all of us.