EcoloLogo Publishes Report About the "Six Sins of Greenwashing"
Product Labels Surveyed Sinned 99% of the Time, Says Group
The study claims that there are six misleading eco-labels that products often use to overstate their environmental friendliness.
"The products we surveyed made a total of 1753 claims, and 99% committed at least one of the Six Sins of Greenwashing," says TerraChoice President Scott McDougall.
The Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off is a sinful not-so-green practice engaged in by electronics products whereby they tout their energy efficiency while using potentially hazardous materials.
The Sin of No Proof involves products calling themselves environmentally friendly but not being able to prove it.
The Sin of Vagueness is committed when a product calls itself 100% natural but is using substances such as arsenic and formaldehyde which are, indeed, all-natural but harmful.
The Sin of Irrelevance is committed when a product touts itself as not containing an already-banned substance.
The Sin of Fibbing is committed when a product claims to be certified by an internationally recognized environmental standard like EcoLogo, Energy Star, or Green Seal, but isn't.
The Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils is committed by a product such as, for example, an organic cigarette.
However, "green" groups have been under fire themselves in recent times for allegedly failing to adhere to real science or real data when formulating their "scare" tactics.
Green groups' critics have harshly accused them of spreading "terror" about genetically modified food crops that are the hope of hundreds of millions of people living in poverty or in Third World nations and spreading misinformation about climate change, among other fundamentalist-religion-like practices.
One of the green groups that calls itself NERage has gone around to area supermarkets and put "GM" (genetic modification) labels on foods that it suspects of having been genetically modified, implying without any scientific basis that these foods must be potentially dangerous or were harmful to the environment when they were cultivated.
Some other green groups have not helped their own cause when they have said things like that all those who are opposed to their views should be seen in the same light as Nazis , if they are members of institutions or government officials, they should be forced to stand trial for daring to question their conclusions. Some members of these groups strapping themselves to trees or even whales have also caused their organizations to look like religious extremists instead of scientifically literate to their critics, who go on to say that most of green groups' claims are tall-tales or gross exaggerations wrapped around a small kernel of truth.
Original Newswire Source:
http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-19-2007/0004708573&EDATE=
Published by Brant McLaughlin
I am a Writer driven by endless curiosity and a deep desire to waste time creatively. View profile
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1 Comments
Post a CommentGreat article. I can say that people are not aware that the electronics they toss out are built using lead-based solder which when mixed with rain water then ends up in the water supply.