Green Guilt On The Rise

With the Earth Day messages and Goracle prognostications of gloom and doom, combined with various church denominations hopping on the Green Bandwagon, a person cannot help but feel some "green guilt" these days. Have you noticed when shopping all the special green designations on product labels? They are becoming as common as those reassuring labels about added calcium and Omega-3s.

Women, naturally, feel more green guilt than men. (Well, we do tend to be the sex that buys into all the Madison 5th Avenue marketing. We do it with our bodies ... why not our other products?) And, according to the second annual Green Guilt survey commissioned by the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, a non-profit that wants you to recycle batteries, we feel guiltier this year than last.

USAToday reports:

In 2007, some 20% of Americans surveyed said they were feeling green guilt. This year, that number jumped slightly to 22%. Men actually felt less guilty this year (18% last year vs. 17% this year), and women were carrying the burden of guilt more (22% vs. 26%).

But guilt aside, more Americans said they're stepping up their actions to make their lives a bit greener, the survey shows.

For instance, more people this year said they recycled cellphones and batteries: 41% said they recycled cellphones and 37% recycled rechargeable batteries, vs. 31% and 29% last year.

And a large majority — 89% — said they recycle something. Last year, the number was 87%.

The survey was based on phone interviews with 525 women and 481 men. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The primary motivation for people to be a little greener? The children. Some 17% say they'd do more if they had a child, the survey says.

...

But guilt can be a double-edged sword, says Chip Giller, president and founder of Grist.org, an environmental website written with a humorous twist.

"Green guilt certainly works for some people, but I have a concern that guilt ultimately is going to turn off more people than anything else," Giller says.

Plus, he adds, green "consumerism and frankly battery recycling are only going to get us so far. "

Instead, like many environmentalists, he says that to get big change, the United States needs to change big policies, including legislation aimed at major polluters.

So how guilty should you feel for choosing plastic over paper or keeping your baby's bottom wrapped in Pampers?

"What I like to say is focus on the big stuff and don't sweat the small stuff," Giller says.

While it's true that one person may not save the glaciers from melting with one diaper, Paige Rodgers, a Marin, Calif., mother who co-founded a business making cloth napkins for kids — instead of wasteful paper — says that every little thing really does help.

"I hear that echoed — this idea of feeling good about making small changes. Because it's something. We're doing something."

I do find it ironic that, when you look at the article on USAToday's website, the side margins are full of links to such green guilt-inducing activities such as quizzes and interactive graphics, green tour companies, green gatherings, a poll of attitudes not matching actions, etc.