Going Green: Revolution or Fad?

Within the past five years I have noticed a lot more people are trying to "go green." Anthropogenic influences on global warming has become a world wide concern and many companies have decided to help save the planet. Commercials tell us to do our part and buy fuel efficient vehicles, recycle our products, plant a tree, use re-usable bags, etc. Minimize your carbon footprint, if not for you for your children. With so much eco-friendly advertising by General Electric, car companies, and many more companies is it really a surprise that people are becoming more conscious about their waste? Is it because it is cheaper to own a fuel efficient car or installing energy efficient windows in our homes that people are being more environmentally aware? Is it because people are actually concerned with the threat of global warming? Or is it because going green is a fad? 

Commercials have a lot of influence over human behaviors. Especially when top dog companies advertise their products. Apple creates a new product and people swarm to buy it. Nike has some new running shoes so throw out your old one's because these one's can play music somehow out of the soles!  Does this same technology phenomenon occur when considering global warming? Are we more interested in the topic because alternative energy is the pioneering project of the century? Besides, if the big companies we idolize are going green, we should too! 

Let's examine some eco friendly commercials we've seen lately. General Electric is advertising how they are using alternative energy to power the world, inspirational and fascinating to us, we applaud their efforts. Then we move to automobile commercials, the top one being the Toyota Prius. Their car is advertised not based on the safety of the car, but on the fact that there are solar panels on the roof that use the suns energy to power the air conditioning. That's a cool feature right? Makes me want to buy it! Then we have Sun chips. This is not a commercial about the chip itself, but about the bag. We watch about 30 seconds worth of a bag gradually decomposing and a plant grows where the bag once was. This is cool, but why did Sun chips decide to focus their commercial on how environmentally friendly they are rather than how much people enjoy their chips? Is it because they're aware that if they are environmentally friendly and are utilizing new technology that people will be more inclined to buy their product? 

I only hope that being green isn't just a fad, and that people are going green not to show off that they are, but because they want to actually minimize their carbon footprint. So when you see a new product being advertised based on their environmentally friendly factors, ask yourself if you would buy that because it will help you reduce your waste, or just because its something new to try out. Hopefully some day company's won't have to advertise how eco-friendly they are because everyone will know that their products are good for the environment, if products can ever truly be "good" for the environment.