Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism Is Harming the Environment

Wherever we turn, politicians, businesses and activists are promoting the latest fashionable green policy or product. Green buildings, electric cars, compact fluorescent lightbulbs and a variety of other technologies are touted as the next key step in protecting the environment and promoting a sustainable future. Increasingly, however, scientific and economic information regarding environmental problems takes a back seat to the social and personal value of being seen and perceived as green. As environmental consciousness has become socially popular, eco-fads supplant objective data. Politicians pick the latest environmental agenda in the same way we choose the fall fashions - looking for what will yield the largest benefit with our public and social circles. Eco-Fads exposes the pressures that cause politicians, businesses, the media and even scientists to fall for trendy environmental fads. It examines why we fall for such fads, even when we should know better. The desire to be green can cloud our judgment, causing us to place things that make us appear green ahead of actions that may be socially invisible yet environmentally responsible. By recognizing the range of forces that have taken us in the wrong direction, Eco-Fads shows how we can begin to get back on track, creating a prosperous and sustainable legacy for our planet's future.