Fresh Greens

Tough Choices for Earth Day

By Maura Judkis

Posted: April 9, 2009

Sometimes, it's hard to weigh the pros and cons of choices that can seem like a lose-lose situation. Faced with the choice of paper or plastic, should you waste trees or let your bag end up in a landfill for eons? Should you use chemicals and extra water to wash cloth diapers, or pollute with disposable ones?  What's worse - CFLs or incandescent bulbs? Learn the answers, below.

greenwashing and big lies

There’s a lot of doubt surrounding which methods/products are truly sustainable and which are just green washing. Check out our myth-busting video “What’s Your Big Green Lie?!” which gives a taste of the widespread ignorance of green issues including cloth VS disposable diapers at http://www.biggreenlies.com

Greenlantern of CO @ Apr 22, 2009 00:11:02 AM

Agreed

I certainly don't disagree with you, Robin. But some people are just getting their feet wet when it comes to going green, and these are the choices they face while they are learning.

Maura Judkis of DC @ Apr 16, 2009 12:17:41 PM

Tough Choices aren't really the big ones

Really, you aren't covering the options here.

Why would the debate be over paper vs. plastic with bags when, really, it's about not using resources and getting into the habit of bringing reusable bags? Both paper and plastic are INCREDIBLY damaging to the environment and the eco-conscious shopper isn't going to want to use either.

With organic versus non-organic, the debate is about pesticide load for kids, not nutritional value. It is proven that pesticides and fertilizers on food cause major health problems snd that children suffer the most damage from conventionally-farmed food using those chemicals.

There's a much heavier debate here.

These, for the most part, are not the real environmental issues.

Robin @ Apr 10, 2009 12:35:11 PM

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Fresh Greens

Fresh Greens

Maura Judkis is a producer at U.S. News. She writes about the green movement and looks for ways to be an ecofriendly consumer without breaking the bank. Send her your green tips.

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