Does Consumerism Save the Environment?

Women saving the environment is one of my favorite topics. So, you'd think I'd be really happy to see this weekend's Washington Post piece about Diane MacEachern of Big Green Purse. A longtime environmentalist, she's also an entrepreneur and public speaker with a few best-selling books under her belt. Cool, right?

But lately, she focuses on one thing that basically drives me up the wall. As the Post explains it, MacEachern "started a campaign on her website encouraging women to join the 'One in a Million' initiative by pledging to shift $1,000 of their household budgets to green products and services." Much like the books she's authored on the subject, her BGP website encourages women to "go green" with tips about buying less bottled water, eating less meat, having an eco-friendly Halloween, and demanding to receive fewer catalogs in the mail.

Is this Chicken Soup for the Wannabe Sustainable Soul? How many poor women who barely scraping by can think about buying "green" products in this economy and too many catalogs in their mailbox? How few of us have a grand lying around for our "household budget?" Buying fair trade chocolate and worrying about "responsible investing" are some of the most underwhelming options available when faced with melting polar ice caps, but promoting a so-called "eco-lifestyle" is really only the beginning of my frustration.

There are several serious flaws in MacEachern's strategy to green the world. In my mind, it isn't about pressuring companies to sell more eco-friendly products, though that's certainly one part of a larger environmentalism strategy. But what we oughta be doing instead is something much more simple: quit buying stuff and quit hoarding. There is life after shopping.

I'm a tough critic, and I don't like being pandered to. I really want to know: why are we still making compromises when it comes to these issues, telling people they can engage in some harmful behaviors in moderation? I believe we ought to be considering just how far these ideas about temporary solutions extend instead of blindly embracing anything labeled "woman-friendly" and "green." When is something just not green enough? Where's the challenge in telling women to head to the mall instead of rolling up their sleeves? Most women I know are better suited for hard work than prancing around a galleria anyway. I also figure if you have enough money to donate to a cause or go shopping for charity, you've likely got an hour (or a lot more) to volunteer somewhere.

Mostly, I'm insulted by the Post's uncritical praise of the idea that women are only good for spending money or shopping our way to a better world. If we're going to focus on "harnessing women's power," you'd think we'd at least be given the benefit of the doubt: our power is in more than our pocketbooks.

Photo Credit: Alanna George