INDImag – Contemporary fiction | Motivational short stories | Social stories | Short story criticism

Thanks to Al Gore, it has never been so good to be a tree hugger. While it is heartening to see such a bevy of activity around saving the environment, there are some that just makes me roll my eyes till I fall off my chair. Don’t get me wrong ; I love every honest effort that goes into helping save our Earth for generations to come. Very many of them are morphing into a lip service or another capitalist opportunity. That irks me. I have much more respect for a person who has the gall to admit he drives an SUV as he/she likes it or needs to feel safe at the cost of other drivers. In the least they are being honest.

Some (not so organic) things to chew on …

• During a recent stay in a swanky hotel, I was glad to see cards in the toilets advising on prudent usage of water and towels and how it would save our valuable natural resources. I was impressed with the effort. But that was short lived. Once in the shower and lathered up, the hotel named brand of real nice spa quality shampoo and conditioner would just not wash off. I’m sure I needed a good 5 more minutes under the shower. A bit peeved and guilt ridden, I decided to test a couple of off the shelf brands. To my dismay I found some of them worked really well with the water they had !
  • Real Message : Stop the water when brushing, you will save a gallon, but we will give you soap that will not wash off and each of our guests will need 15 gallons more to get it off ! That was our lip service for the environment.

• During another hotel stay I was overjoyed to see claims of how the management had taken steps to reduce water consumption. But they should have waited a tad longer before going gung ho about it.
  • Real Message : Turns out their measure to use smaller capacity toilets would not flush in one go and patrons now would flush twice upping the usage !

• California, being an exception to the Republican norm of ‘Global Warming is baloney’ decides to impose European standards for emissions. Non US carmakers readily comply. But our US giants(antiquated Mammoths) sue the government !
  • Real Message : Your hybrid Ford Escape is not green after all !

• Urban trees in USA are a farce. They server little to no purpose (unless in a metro garden). They are planted each year, diligently. But the variety often tends to be the ones that cannot survive the winter or let it dig deep and grow. Cosmetic appeal being the prime motive.Real Message : Your tax paying dollars are literally shed each fall !
• Buy environmental credits, Dell urged when I brought my laptop. Same with the airlines I flew. They would calculate the amount of carbon used for the purpose of my buy and plant trees that would offset my harm to the environment.Real Message : Fair enough you say. Not so fast sucker ! You are pay for the big fellas to look good ! The only consolation, some good is happenning to the environment

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