By Abby Rathbun
Even Kermit couldn’t make green this popular.
Last week, the normally multicolored peacock symbol turned green as NBC celebrated its dedication to “going green” by having a green week.
They flew Matt Lauer to Greenland, Anne Curry to Antarctica and Al Roker to the equator.
How flying three reporters and their camera crews thousands of miles promotes an environmental friendly ideal, I’ll never know. The NBC soap opera “Days of our Lives” went green too, by having a green wedding last week.
Going green seems to be not about helping the environment, but rather about drawing in viewers and consumers.
Even former politicians are becoming celebrities by going green. Al Gore produced one documentary about global warming.
An October BBC article cited at least nine errors and hyperboles in “An Inconvenient Truth” and yet he wins a Nobel Peace Prize because the issue is so trendy.
Those Buddhist monks protesting an incredibly oppressive regime in Myanmar are just not as impressive as one documentary by a former vice president.
The Oscars were green. Sunday Night Football was green. National Geographic went green. GM sponsors a “Go Green, Live Yellow” campaign. Ford is trying to sell a hybrid SUV that gets worse gas mileage than my standard car as environmentally responsible.
This is ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, improving the environment is an excellent cause. Whatever happened to altruism?
The Oscars could have gone green without the big hype, and the same for Sunday Night Football. Americans especially want to feel good about themselves for supporting a national cause. By showing “green” programming, viewers feel as if they’re making a difference.
Watching a documentary about global warming or watching sportscasters call games in the dark is not going to do much for the environment, except use up electricity from the television.
A CNN-Money article, “Go Green, Get Rich,” argues that going green is the hottest way to make a living. Americans are gobbling it up. They’re completely willing to overpay for stuff to alleviate the guilt of contributing to global warming.
What about those that are actually trying to make a difference? During the week of Oct. 12 -20, the Solar Decathlon was held in Washington, D.C.
Twenty universities from around the world were invited to this competition to build a completely functional house that uses only solar power.
These college kids are actually making a difference, and for the right reason.
Going green isn’t like skinny jeans and oversized sunglasses – it isn’t a fad. Go ahead and make the world a better place but don’t praise your own efforts. Let Kermit do all the bragging about being green.
