Apr 22 2010
Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining The Environmental Revolution
The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is being celebrated all across the nation and world with independent and sponsored festivals, wholeheartedly endorsed by local, and state governments, as well as by the White House, against the backdrop of an ongoing, and often confusing, international discussion about climate change and responsibility. A corner-stone of the mainstream environmental movement is to encourage people to focus efforts on buying so-called green products, organic foods, and hybrid vehicles. My guest today says not only is “consumption as politics” ineffective, it can even be harmful. In her new book, “Green Gone Wrong”, Heather Rogers travels around the globe investigating the reality behind the green products, often finding dead-ends instead of flourishing industries and sustainable solutions. Rogers finds that truly earth-friendly technologies and farming techniques do exist and can be successful on a large scale, but only following a serious paradigm shift in how we think about our economy and our planet. She writes that, “Shopping green is alluring in part because it is simple… unlike the messy business of working toward systemic change. The market isn’t able to adequately value environmental health. We need to push the discussion further to include questioning of the limits of market mechanisms as tools for curing environmental ills.”
GUEST: Heather Rogers, journalist and author, writing for the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, and the Nation. Her first book was Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage. Her new book is Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining The Environmental Revolution
Heather Rogers will read from her book Green Gone Wrong on Thursday April 22nd at Town Hall Los Angeles Clubhouse (515 S. Flower Street Suite 1650.). There will be a 6:00 PM Reception, followed by a 6:30 PM Program and Audience Q&A and a Book Signing. Tickets: $20.
Heather Rogers will also be at the LA Times Festival of Books on Sunday April 25th at 12:30 pm at Haines 39. More information at http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/
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