{"id":742,"date":"2018-04-15T06:41:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T06:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/?p=742"},"modified":"2018-04-15T06:47:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-15T06:47:55","slug":"is-green-worth-the-fuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/2018\/04\/15\/is-green-worth-the-fuss\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Green Worth the Fuss?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Is Green Worth the Fuss?<\/p>\n<p>How can we incentivize people to overcome the collective action problem, stop free-riding and take action when the benefits are so long term and indirectly seen? \u00a0One common solution is to \u201cvote with your wallet\u201d and buy green or sustainable products whenever possible, even when making small purchasing decisions like buying a bottle of water.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last decade we have seen \u201cgreen washing\u201d occur as the next big marketing opportunity. Just like the fight against fat, carbs, and recently gluten created niche-marketing opportunities for food producers, the crusade against waste in the undeniable face of changing climate has created a marketing opportunity for producers of all kinds of products. Green leaves have popped up on cars and plastic water bottles alike, seemingly juxtaposed to the products themselves. This push to go green and be \u201cmore sustainable\u201d has even lead to preference signaling and competitive altruism &#8211; as described by Steve Sexton, a PhD student at U.C. Berkeley, \u201ca sort of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses type concept but applied to efforts to make society better. So, I\u2019ll be competing with my neighbors to donate to a charity for instance or to reduce energy conservation, or environmental impacts (Freakonomics)\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But, as its discussed in Andrew Szasz\u2019s book, \u201c<em>Shopping Our Way to Safety: How We Changed from Protecting the Environment to Protecting Ourselves\u201d,<\/em> &#8212; perhaps \u201cbuying green\u201d is allowing people to be lulled into a false sense of security. A person can buy a water bottle that is marked \u201cgreen\u201d, and believe they are helping the environment reducing the likelihood that they make any large scale- real changes that could actually help the planet. The article implies that the \u201cgreening\u201d of products, which at first glance seems like an pro-environment move, might actually be working to increase the barriers to overcoming the collective action problem as people no longer feel personally or morally responsible to act.<\/p>\n<p>So, if you can make educated environmentally conscious choices when shopping do. But, do not stop there if you really care. Write a letter, make a call, donate some of your time, and take the action necessary to affect real change.<\/p>\n<p>Freakonomics. (2011, July 07). Hey Baby, Is That a Prius You&#8217;re Driving? Full Transcript. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from http:\/\/freakonomics.com\/2011\/07\/07\/hey-baby-is-that-a-prius-youre-driving-full-transcript\/<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-768\" src=\"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Officially-Fake-Green-Product-300x293.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Officially-Fake-Green-Product-300x293.jpg 300w, http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Officially-Fake-Green-Product-60x60.jpg 60w, http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Officially-Fake-Green-Product.jpg 552w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-770\" src=\"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Officially-Fake-Green-Product-1-300x293.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Officially-Fake-Green-Product-1-300x293.jpg 300w, http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Officially-Fake-Green-Product-1-60x60.jpg 60w, http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Officially-Fake-Green-Product-1.jpg 552w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Link to Youtube Video about Greenwashing with Fiji Water:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mOpa8kd6fBI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Is Green Worth the Fuss? How can we incentivize people to overcome the collective action problem, stop free-riding and take action when the benefits are so long term and indirectly seen? \u00a0One common solution is to \u201cvote with your wallet\u201d and buy green or sustainable products whenever possible, even when making small purchasing decisions like buying a bottle of&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/2018\/04\/15\/is-green-worth-the-fuss\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":791,"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions\/791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}