By Kimberly
First the "American Idol" finale, and now Sen. John McCain “goes green” by rolling out his new line of eco-friendly campaign apparel mostly made of bamboo, a renewable resource, and cotton blends, as seen on Drudge. Many pundits rebuff this and other recent acts as a ploy to woo environmentalists from the left to reconsider McCain as their presidential candidate.
(continued)
But to me, these actions are probably the ultimate demonstration of greenwashing I’ve ever seen, even more so than organic cigarettes and “natural” Clorox cleaners. McCain had no problem voting against American adoption of the Kyoto Treaty in 1997, yet on Monday set out to support a cap and trade carbon emissions system as seen in Europe.
Do I smell a post-consumer waste, compostable, 100 percent recyclable, fair-trade, biodegradable, organic, local, free-range, not-tested-on-small-animals flip flop?
Comments (1)
Actually, McCain has taken hits form the right since late nineties for his environmentalism or green friendly (friendlier?) approach Also, the Cap and trade option is a very market friendly way to go about reducing and eventually eliminating waste as it gives companies a major incentive to reduce their waste so that they can make more money by selling their unused carbon emission allowances. Hence McCain should be able to appease two political groups the Greens and the market worshipping Neo-Cons.
The truly sad part is both groups, having turned their own paradigms into cults, will not recognize the benefits of this plan. Greens are upset because the problem is solved using market forces instead super-ego placating morality, and the Neo-Cons because they love market forces except when you expand the paradigm to make a case for causes that they see as their mortal enemy. But that’s life.