September 21st, 2008 Posted in Ethical/Eco

Why the term “green” is nonsense.

I’m going to get straight to the point with this one.  Things can not be described as “green” or “not green”.

Everything has an impact, no matter how eco-friendly it is trying to be.  The alternative phrase might be “greener”, but then this falls foul of nothing to compare it to.  There has to be a reference “thing” for the new “greener thing” so it can be “greener” than the reference “thing”.

This is semantic, yes.  But what else is there? The words we use are all we have to try and get our meanings across – it’s no good saying “yeah, but you know what I mean”.  That’s lazy.  So to make “green” actually mean something, there has to be a comparison. To get numbers to compare two items, the impact of designing, making, transporting, using and decommissioning the item must be taken into account.  This could well be very difficult.  Difficulty is no excuse for giving up, however.

Thoughts on a postcard, please 🙂

Nick