Objective

Green consumerism is a topic discussed in the articles as just another form of

environmental degradation. Anon emphasized on the term green washing to point
out how certain products and companies can be misleading their customers while
they do their dirty work behind the scene. Macadam discusses fair trade, and
highlights the initiatives taken to foster this concept. Makowers article about
consumerism implies that consumers are behind environmental degradation even
with the idea of going green, as the term implies a guilt free sentiment leading to
more consumption.
!ummary
Anon "#$$%& pins the blame for green washing on public relations, advertising
agencies, and on market solutions. Anon described the waste reduction principles of
'educing, recycling, 'eusing, and buying eco logo products as band air solutions
while major surgery is needed. (e cited them as )doomed to failure) because of the
fact that they encourage individual response, while the major issue re*uires a solid
engagement from all parties involved in pollution. Green consumerism was
approached to increase new markets and growth. +he term )Green washing) was
the focus on the author, which is using a false imagine of a company being
environmentally friendly, while doing its dirty, and environmentally damaging work
behind the scene. 'eason for this is that the truth behind every business is making
pro-t, and growing bigger. +his would not happen without use of resource, energy
and causing some disturbances to the environment. Moreover, ethical consumerism
is noted to be based solely on market solutions to ecological crisis. Market is driven
by pro-t, and pollution will occur if it will generate pro-t.
Macadams article on fair trade, and more speci-cally to co.ee emphasized
on the importance of supporting third world farming communities. /hile
appreciating the results in your cup, one can rest assured that his0her co.ee has
had a positive impact on every person it has touched. +he author cited fair trade
initiatives which have for main premise that farmers from non developed countries
were given a guaranteed )fair price) for their e.orts of making co.ee. A guarantee
that became appealing to all farmers when the price of co.ee fell below the cost of
production. 1t was also noted that it might be hard for consumers to acknowledge
how much farmers were being paid and how much they were pro-ting on any bag of
fair or unfair co.ee.
Opposite to Anon article, Makower pins the blame for green consumerism on
the north American psychology on shopping, and on the capitalist culture that had
us believe that buying green is an environmentally conscious practice. +he author
summarizes his critics over the fact that consumers lack knowledge, perspective, or
do not really care. A whole reassessment of their consumption behaviour need to be
done.
2ritical analysis.
+his article, providing informative evidence on misleading green products. (owever,
the article is not fully grounded, and send a very negative idea about going green at
-rst glance. 3nfortunately, 1 disagreed with Anon criticism of growth, not being able
to ask why the global economic system is irrational. +he author did not discuss our
social and economic state making growth so essential and environmental
destruction universal. My idea about this article was as if the author was saying that
the most environmentally conscious thing you can do is 4O+ 536 A+ A77. /hich in
reality is impossible to do. +he author also -rmly rejected individual responses to
the environmental crises, while 1 think that projects that improve the sustainability
and resilience of local communities are also as important. +his article gets the
reader very confused and irritated as it does not provide any plan to follow in order
to do the right thing.
+he fair trade article tackled an important topic about the economic ine*uity
and the di.erence that fair trade would have on co.ee producers. (owever, is fair
trade really a free trade. 1f the /orld +rade Organization can ban discrimination on
the grounds of production methods, this can also mean that if fair trade even
threatened the interests of dominant producers in the market then the /+O would
be able to step in if it gets to be disadvantage to those producer who did not
engage in fair trade. second, the article did not discuss the price issues rising from
8air +rade, especially that the cost of producing co.ee caries from country to
country and even within countries. 1 also feel that there is no reason why a cup of
8air +rade co.ee should cost that much more than non 8air +rade, if we follow the
statistics on the article, even doubling a producers family income should add less
than one penny to the price of a cup of co.ee.
1 do agree that green consumerism can feel as a guilt free act and would encourage
to buy more +he fact that Makower titled his article as green consumerism being
o9ymoron is an o9ymoron itself. +he author did not recognize that the trend toward
green consumerism could indicates, at least, a widespread recognition that the
planet is in trouble, and some sort of intention to do something about it. +here
should be no doubt that in case of a necessity like light bulbs, green consumerism
actually works. Are we to rely on candlelight in order to help save the planet: 1n
fact, with increasing demand through small steps, large multinational corporation
would turn to a greener style of business.
;uestions<
=oes 8air +rade really add to development potential to developing countries, or puts
them into price dependencies.
/ould third party group be needed to inform consumers about the real imagine of
green consumerim: