Dear Editor,
So, as the melting of the Polar ice-caps moves into a new dimension (The Guardian, various recent reports: Links below), I was pondering the corporate response where, at the moment, there seems to a flurry of enthusiasm for "Green Business". This is reflected in current advertising and, indeed, a quick internet-search on the words "green business booming" brings up a whole swathe of hits.
Yes, corporations are brimming with confidence that "Green Business" is "sustainable". Indeed, there is a boom in this field ... but what does it really mean?
The feeling that I get is not so much that it will do much to save the climate or the environment but rather that, by "greening" (or "greenwashing") a little, you can really crank up your turnover-levels. In this context, the word "sustainable" is often used in a highly ambiguous way with it being easily construed as "sustainable profits".
I think that someone needs to urgently untangle the hype here because, if we allow an enthusiastic "mirage" of greening/profiteering to muddy the waters, then our chances of halting Polar-meltdown are close to nil.
My suggestion would be that, rather than forging ahead with complicated hi-tech, high-cost, high-risk, high-profit (and high-enthusiasm!) schemes, we should instead be scaling back to a more modest style of living. But, of course, that type of "sustainability" is not the thing that the accountants and the speculators are interested in!
Regards
