Anything claiming to be eco-friendly catches our attention. However, do we know what being green really means? It is some what unclear to the general public in India.There are no standards and authentications of the products.
We may buy products that say it is green, but we do not know what part of it is green and how green it is ? Also why is the product considered to be green ?
But there is a bigger issue here. Are we justified to go on a green shopping spree ? If a place sells natural/green products, such as shoes or clothes made of natural fiber, made by poor women in some village, via a no-toxic process, does it justify owning 30 of them ? Probably not. The whole premise of living green is to consume less, travel less, less handbags and other such things, because each of these take up natural resources and carbon space. In other words, excessive consumerism is "un-green."
Purchasing something fuzzily green is better than buying something likely to be downright detrimental to the environment. But green does not mean to consume recklessly. and all of us must discipline our minds to curtail our buying urges every time we go shopping. Otherwise green products really do not have much meaning.
SOURCE: Bharti Chaturvedi, Hindustan Times, India.
Comments
Leave a comment