The environmental movement is an important one: we have destroyed our planet. This problem is worthy of our attention and needs a solution. It has caused severe climate change, extinction of species, natural disasters, and other environmental tragidies. However, the movement has given rise to another cultural predator: the echo-douche.
We've all met them, especially here in Northern California. They're usually rich white people who drive a Prius, hassle their neighbors about recycling, shop at Whole Foods, and buy the expensive and trendy "green versions" of products. They're usually the same people who send their kids to private schools, tacitly support tax cuts for the rich, and employ people of color to do the house and yard work that they don't want to do. For them, the green fad/movement has become a way to assuage their guilt and say, to themselves and the world, "I'm not a total asshole, I care about the EARTH!"
These douchebags are everywhere. What makes the eco-douche so special and so dangerous? He has succeeded in taking critical problem and commodified it. Instead of contributing in a meaningful way to a viable solution, the eco-douche has commodified that solution and turned it into a status symbol, an example of the class stratification in the United States. It's expensive to be "eco friendly" (synonym for eco-douche). And it's doing more harm than good.
Take, for example, the Prius. Lovely looking car, great step on the road towards electric cars and less oil dependency. Problematic. Why? Well, it takes more energy and emits more carbon to make a Prius than is saved by driving one. And it's ridiculously expensive, more in the "luxury" category than the "affordable". These are not new or hidden facts. So why do people keep buying them? For the same reason they became eco-douches in the first place: to capitalize on a movement they don't really care about. The Prius is a status symbol of self-importance that says, "I'm better than you because I'm saving the Earth AND because I'm rich."
And then there's Whole Foods. Ugh. Organic food, outrageous prices. There is no reason to shop at Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) when there's a Trader Joe's with the same thing at half the price right across the street (as is the case in my hometown). But the truth is, when the eco-douche shops at Whole Foods, he makes a statement that isn't just about food, just like it isn't really about the environmental movement. It's about the package it comes in. The green movement has been hijacked by capitalism.
The truth is, being "eco friendly" has become the domain of the wealthy and privileged. They don't have Whole Foods stores in the inner city and in low-income areas. Buying any kind of car, let alone a Prius, isn't an option for everyone. When you're struggling to feed your family, you probably don't have the extra money to spend on the "green" brands. The solution isn't more eco-douches, whose products creation, shipping, and handling actually harms more than it helps. The solution is a more accessible movement. The eco-douche shouldn't have a problem with this, because it's about the environment - right?
