| e e Editorial The opinions expressed in this column do not neces-

sarily reflect those of the staff of this publication, or of the Student Union.

One of the greatest propaganda campaigns ever to occur is happening right before our eyes. Everywhere we look we are being brainwashed into believing half truths and lies. What is all this propaganda telling us? *‘GREEN! GREEN! GREEN!’”’

An environmental tidal wave of green is on top of us. We have environmentally friendly everything these days. All our packaging is green, all our products are green, and all our services are green. We have green toothpaste, green toilet paper, green paint, green cloths, green soap, green gas, green cars, green food, green paper and green, and green and green. Enough of this!

Wake up and smell the green grass. The world is not in the depths of hell like many think. We are not one hugh garbage dump. The ‘‘new’’ school of thought consist of the 3 r’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. These are the new magic words of the day. By living the 3 r’s we are all saving the world, creating a better tomorrow, and becoming better people in the process. This is utter nonsense.

This campaign is nothing more then yet another great bandwagon that offers a ride to everyone who needs the feeling of power in this world. Without question, millions of environmentalist around the world (or at least in the world we see) are following leaders orders nthe fight against garbage without ever a thought hat maybe some of the orders are incorrect. We sort ur plastics, use cloth diapers, wash out our glass ottles, make compost heaps, and ‘‘force’’ companies obe more environmentally friendly. Yet we never hink of what we are really doing, just as long as we ire following the great 3 r’s.

Ine of the ‘‘greatest’’ victories ever for the environ- nental battle was forcing McDonalds to stop using tyrofoam containers for the packaging. Instead they re using a paper wrap. This was to be only the first tep. Yet what most people did not realize was that

October 3, 199]

the styrofoam, which does not contain CFC’s any more.

The rebirth of cloth diapers is another example of some of the half truths we live by. Cloth diapers use more resources to produce, are less hygienic to the baby, and use more energy to clean, then do dispos- able. Everybody has a compost heap in there back yards, yet why are these any better then a hugh heap in the land fill, which is what a landfill is all about. Sorting our plastics on PEI means that a second truck has to come around and collect our blue boxes, haul the plastics off the Island, use the ferry, then to be melted down in a hugh furnace which uses a large amount of fuel. The same goes for the glass that we recycle.

Finally, I would like to point out that the new ‘‘paper is better then plastic’’ idea fails to state that much of the paper we have been throughing out does not de- compose as fast as we are lead to believe. That in fact

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