In a NY Times article entitled “That Buzz in Your Ear May Be Green Noise,” author Alex Williams suggests consumers have had a sensory overload of green information that is often contradictory and consumers are simply exhausted by it. Williams suggests that for those trying to do their part to help the environment, there is often confusion and incongruity leading consumers, even the best intentioned, to feel overwhelmed.
Focus groups in 2007 were even showing green-backlash against all of the, as Williams calls it, “green-noise.” Consumers are confused as to what really is the greenest approach to simple tasks such as washing the dishes: is it more eco-friendly to wash by hand or use the dishwasher? Car purchasing: is it more eco-friendly to purchase a new hybrid or to hold on to your older automobile? The overload of information and constant quibbling over how to be “greener” has led to pessimism about the green movement all together. As quoted in Williams’ article, “Eddie Stern, 38, a media strategist in Durango, Colo., said he recently ‘went nuts, just trying to buy a car’ because of the ‘overload of info, from the news, from the Internet, from quote-unquote experts on the street.’”
Ruefully, this burn-out extends from consumers to economists, like Tucson native and professor of political economics at Harvard University, Joseph Kalt who goes so far as to suggest, “Maybe this problem is not solvable. Who said this problem was solvable? The whole world is chasing this resource (electricity). We’re just part of the world.” Yikes.
Paul Hawken, an environmentalist and author, suggests climate change will take several generations to combat, and there will never be a single moment when society can declare “mission accomplished,” “There are no watershed moments in the environment. It’s a century-long process.” Perhaps Hawken is simply preaching patience and not pessimism…and perhaps that is the most important message to consumers right now. We need to be patient as new technologies evolve and begin to shape the landscape of our future. We need to be patient as we dial down the “green-noise” and simply try to do our part, as best we can.
