Watch the national business organization's assertion video and tell me that it isn't biased. Tell me the University of California at Berkeley Meta-Study, 2004 incorrectly reported that the job-creating power of renewable energy is 3-5 times that of fossil fuels.
These are specific examples. Can information straight out of business associations be more scientific than a collegiate study? It's a simple question. I'd really dig a qualifiable answer from a skeptic. I'm getting sick of the tried and false spam that I've seen lately.
Perhaps you've seen it: it's something like, "I'm a climatologist and I don't fit the mold" and proceeds to list percents of atmospheric carbon dioxide and prove through a three sentence statement that the human species and industrialization of the Earth have no global impact on climate.
They tell me to do the research on my own, to ignore the peer-reviewed science of the IPCC, and note the IPCC as a governmental sponsored group. I say great. I'm very satisfied they are. Can citizens trust an interest group paid by corporations (that are responsible to stock-holders) to answer the question, Is this phenomenon human-caused?
There's a shared responsibility here. Together we must, as usual, follow the money trail. Is the article we're reading printed in the Society for Better Motels Association, or is from a peer-reviewed scientific source? And if it's part of the fabricated SBMA, what is their interest in disproving scientific claims?
I'm finding the question, do i support businesses that are not local, but evidently practice some forms of sustainability to spur them to do more(?) troubling. Will it spur them? I'd like to say, 'Sure, I'm a consumer. Yuse guys better listen up!'
Some people challenge me to put my green money where my green mind is. And I will. But I still hesitate to buy non-Montanan cheese. I don't take pride in buying Tilamook cheese from Washington. It's not a guilty pleasure.
And anyways, how much weight does the statement As a consumer, you have real power. USE IT hold?
I will continue researching this subject, but the jury at Treehugger is out on the subject.
I think you are on to something. There have even been a few stories in the media about the green shift in corporations to capitalize on new consumer culture. A lot of the products we're seeing may be only slight improvements over older products made with reckless negligence toward the environment, but the corporation makes a few tweaks, touts its reductions and commitment to the environment, gets the business of people looking for greener products, and at the same time does very little to address the problem.
As to your comment on my blog, my absolute favorite places to eat Mexican food are local Mexican restaurants, not the Americanized corporate copycats, who, despite having good food, always turn me off by offering "mild" salsa that everyone should call pico de gallo. When I ask for pico de gallo they say "You mean mild?" No, I mean pico de gallo, the real name for that salsa. I agree that it would be better to support local businesses with sustainable ideas, at least in most cases. Check out the link in my signature if you want to read some more about my ideas concerning capitalism and the environment.
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My Project
"Endure. In Enduring, Grow Strong."--Dak'kon, Planescape Torment
That is an excellent undertaking. I should be doing something like that. I feel like donating money to that cause. Seems more direct and swell, compared with Walmart patronage. Keep up the good work, my friend-- you have an organism in Montana who's cheering you on!
Every organism's heartbeat holds a universe of beauty at http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/green-underbelly
You might be interested in this blog, too:
www.totalprosperity.blogspot.com
There's even an article regarding sustainable living.