Green Signaling

Have you been forced into Green Signaling? You know, feeling pressured into doing and saying things that make it clear you are eco-friendly? Well, guess what. It’s time to give yourself a break… because you’ve been lied to. That’s right. You’ve been manipulated into virtue signaling for the supposed protectors of the planet.

You’re a good person and you want to be environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, it’s that kind-hearted nature that has made you a soft target for eco-propagandists.

For example, who could possibly be against recycling? We all want to reduce the flow of material going into our landfills, don’t we? Sure, but most recycling is ineffective. It drives up your taxes and actually has a greater impact on the planet. Doubling the number of garbage trucks on the road to pick up paper, plastic, glass, and cans burns a lot of fuel. And the market for these products has evaporated. China used to purchase giant amounts of our recyclables but not anymore. So, cities and counties are having to significantly increase fees to pay for garbage collection.

Recycling paper, plastic and glass uses more resources than just making new stuff. It does make sense to recycle steel, aluminum, and copper, but the rest of it is just green signaling. We don’t need to recycle because of a shortage of landfill space either because there is no shortage. After landfills are closed we do cool things like build parks on top of them.

Starbucks, McDonalds and Hyatt hotels, are now promising to phase out plastic straws. Miami, Malibu Beach, and Seattle have already done so. Why ban straws? Because of ocean pollution, supposedly. But only an estimated 3-hundredths of one percent of plastic in the ocean comes from straws. In fact, 80 percent of unmanaged ocean plastic comes from just 10 rivers in Africa and Asia. America contributes less than one and a half percent of ocean plastic. But that’s not stopping those that signal green.

Many of them also want to ban plastic bags, including Kroger grocery stores. Again… why? A study in Denmark revealed that you would have to re-use a paper bag 43 times to have the equivalent environmental impact of a single plastic bag. And a cotton bag would have to be used hundreds of times.

If Starbucks, Kroger and other companies want to green signal for marketing purposes, that’s their business. The much bigger problem is when our governments force us to “be green” for our own good.

In America, more than two dozen states seem to be in a competition to see which one can mandate getting more of their electricity from wind and solar in the quickest time frame possible. California and Hawaii have already mandated 100-percent renewable electricity generation by 2045. Apparently, nobody has explained to them that it’s probably not even technically possible. Even as these states try to reach such an unrealistic goal their electricity prices are going to become ridiculously high, as Germany and South Australia are figuring out right now.

So why am I telling you all this? Because there are politicians and special interests that are trying to use bogus social pressure to get you to conform to ideas that endanger our economy, national security, and even our happiness. Don’t let that happen. You don’t need to green signal by recycling paper, plastic and bottles and you don’t need to feel guilty about using straws or plastic bags. The best thing you can do is simply buy and use less stuff… if that’s what you want to do. And it’s ok if you give the green police your own signal… if you know what I mean.

For the Clear Energy Alliance, I’m Mark Mathis. Power On.