One of the biggest PR success stories in history has to be the meteoric rise of the “Green” movement. 10 years ago, if you said something was “green” most of the world thought you were referring to the color. Now, not only is it a statement of efficiency and conservation, but it’s blurred right past the train stop of public consciousness and positioned itself as a goal.
Not for anyone. Not for a specific product. For Everyone. For Every product.
So I find myself laughing. I think awareness of resources and their usage is wise in every area. But putting an eco-friendly bent on many things is just asinine…
I read today about the green movement in Hunting.
Yes. Green. Hunting.
You see bullets are made of lead. (as in “Fill him fulla Lead”). And lead is one step down from asbestos on the list of “products we built America with until we realized people would sue”. So it’s been phased out of almost everything.
But Ammunition is a 1 BILLION dollar industry. That’s right, Billion. So instead of not buying or making bullets, the recommendation is to make them out of cooper. Companies already exist and they are trying to get more support from more hunters…
I don’t hunt. I don’t know how hunters will view this change. As a writer, I admit the sentence “fill him fulla Copper” just doesn’t have the same menacing ring to it… yet… here’s the thing that really gets me.
This is HUNTING. A pastime now undertaken for no other reason than because we can. Obviously, we could go to the store and buy meat far easier… so no matter how much of the kill a family eats, it’s still a consumptive activity. Hunting is done as a hobby. For fun. And that fun is accomplished through destruction. There’s no creating life in hunting. There’s no maintaining that animal for others to enjoy.
Boom. Dead.
That’s the point. Like it or loathe it, a successful hunt destroys life.
Or to take it a step further… the reason guns are fired at another person in war is to KILL THEM. And now someone’s worried about the impact of a bullet left lying on the ground for the next few decades? What about the dead thing?
Seems to me if you want to diminish the environmental impact of bullets then you should – strange thought I know – stop firing them at living things!
But Green ammunition… let’s get behind that.
And while we’re at it, how about my other favorite in this category:
Hybrid Race-Cars!
That’s right, folks… another fun and consumptive pastime talking about “green strategies”. Racing exists to burn fuel at absurd speeds, all while destroying tires and spending enough money to run small countries. But yes… the Prius Formula 1 car is gonna make the world a better place.
So let’s call these things what they are. Good publicity.
Stockholders feel better when the company they support is “embracing green technology”. We all believe things are better when a pastime or creation founded in consumption wraps itself in a blanket of caring.
When the big bad wolf dressed up like grandma he was still a wolf. If our first concern is supposed to be protection then the wolf has to die. But we don’t want to do that – we’ll let the PR department figure out how to pretend.
As for me: I’m pro wolf. I’m gonna start a wolf support group. Let’s label our consumptive hobbies as “black” activities. Then we’ll all feel like spies going to our “black” events.
Green is fine. But there’s lots of other colors too, and that’s okay.
This had me laughing the whole way through!
“Seems to me if you want to diminish the environmental impact of bullets then you should – strange thought I know – stop firing them at living things!”
I’m just like you.. if I hear one more thing refered to as “Green” or somebody else tell me how they are “Getting off the grid” I think I might just lose all my cookies.
f.y.i., I know you are a busy man these days, but I hope you’ll be able to update this blog a little more often.. I check it almost everyday. 🙂