Groundhogs and the Green Illusion

2/2/10-A Groundhog? Why would we decide to follow the judgment of a common North-American rodent? The weather obviously does not bend to the will of a single mammal, but why would we decide to follow a groundhog almost religiously? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the decision to belong to a more intelligent creature? Perhaps a human would make a good alternative. I suppose that gives to much power to the human though and would create conflict on who got to be the official weather predictor. Maybe we give the job to an animal because we don’t want to be wrong. If the groundhog is wrong one could just say, “That makes sense, because it’s a stupid groundhog.” If it were a person the average individual would get angry with them and expect better responses. Now that I think about it, we already do that all the time, and we call the weathermen. So what exactly is the point of the groundhog?

2/6/10- The Green Paradox

America is “going green” lately. Or so it says. And while many companies are jumping on board and trying to make their companies more earth friendly, it seems to be more of a craze than an actual attempt to better our world. For example, there is a big push for us to use less paper, and online book companies argue that reading ebooks saves the environment because it cuts down on tree use. However, this is hardly the case. If we use less paper, but rely more heavily on electronic devices, we pollute the world with emissions and overuse energy. The better alternative would be to just make sure you recycled a book after reading it; either by lending it to a friend or the library, or throwing it into your recycling bin. Another issue is the “green premium” in which it becomes more expensive to buy earth-friendly products because companies are trying to monopolize on the human conscience. If organic t-shirts are 1.5x as expensive as the same shirt on chemically-treated cotton, the average consumer is not going to spend the extra money. Instead, a surplus of expensive earth-friendly products forms and the companies are wasting energy making products that nobody is gong to by. I agree with helping the environment and trying to be as earth-friendly as possible, but I am disheartened by big businesses trying to capitalize on the idea and causing more harm than good.