NOT green.

To Worshipers of Consumption: Spending Won’t Save the Earth.

That’s the message from a Post article yesterday titled Greed In the Name Of Green, in which author Monica Hesse takes consumer culture to task for destructive behavior in the name of ecological friendliness. Throwing away your old sheets and replacing them with $570 special “green” sheets from Switzerland is not, Hesse argues, healthy for the planet. She satirically tells us let us never consider the other organic option – not buying – because the new green consumer wants to consume.

It all reminds BeyondDC of an observation our real-life alter ego once made in regard to a so-called “green” WalMart proposed in Colorado: LEED architecture without good urban design is like cutting down the rainforest using hybrid-powered bulldozers. A sprawly WalMart with 20 acres of parking, to which customers drive from miles around, is intrinsically harmful to the environment. It doesn’t matter what kind of bulbs they use to light the store, the effect is B-A-D.

Wanna make a difference, America? Change your behavior. Techno wizardry and organic products are fine, but they make a marginal difference to root behaviors that are inherently anti-green. Instead, try living somewhere walkable. Give up the McMansion for a bungalow or rowhouse. Don’t be a NIMBY. Fight for, not against urban densities and transit. Instead of driving a hybrid, drive less.

In any event, it’s time to give up the pretension that we’re saving the environment by slapping “green” labels on our favorite products, but otherwise enthusiastically continuing the harmful behaviors of the last century.

Thanks to Melissa Esposito of CommuterPageBlog for the head’s up.