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Green capitalism raising questions
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: April 18th, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/business/energy-environmen...
The global economic collapse pushed the rise of green capitalism off business magazine covers, but it will surely resurface. Now, along comes Heather Rogers, who warns about the dangers of buying into this mind-set with Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution. She says green capitalism is actually undermining ecological progress. She says corporate America has led us into thinking that we can save the earth mainly by buying things like compact fluorescent light bulbs, hybrid gas-electric cars and carbon offsets. Green Gone Wrong ... doesnt just go after easy targets like big corporations that she says are clearly more interested in making money than saving the earth. Some of the most poignant moments come when Ms. Rogers visits organic farmers in upstate New York. She laments that they cant make a living because it is so expensive for them to comply with the federal certification requirements for organic foods. What isnt being talked about is that many of the small organic producers who are expected to lead the reinvention of the food system can barely make ends meet, she says. [The book] would have been better had Ms. Rogers delved more deeply into another of her suggestions: instead of buying green, we simply need to buy less stuff. She seems reluctant to push this too hard because its a truly radical idea that flies in the face of capitalism green or not.
Note: Heather Rogers is an established investigative journalist who is also the author of the acclaimed book Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage.
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