While playing cards the other day with a very pregnant friend of mine, she mentioned that one of her best friends has decided to use cloth diapers with her newly born son. “I thought you might like to hear that,” she says, “It’s very organic.”
Here is a rundown of what goes through my head when my unsuspecting friends make comments like that. The last thing I think we need are more “green” products (though I love the idea of using cloth diapers-it was a good practice for my mom when I was a kid and it is a good practice now). These “new” green labels–mass-produced and stamped on our favorite toys–are not necessary, and in my view, miss the point completely. They get indiscriminately applied to almost any product as a way for national or international corporations to up the “market share.” This leaves gluttonous and lazy American consumers with the environmental equivalent of “atonement” (while at the same time enticing them with otherworldly suburban rewards). Do you want comfort and convenience? A three-car garage to house both your hybrid SUVs? The net result is: the elite who can afford to pay extra for the “guilt-free” label consume more and more, while the rest of the world barely survives. Obviously, this is a problem.
Mere consumption (i.e., having to purchase everything needed in order to get by) is the antithesis of ecological, economic, and community health. The name of the game in most “civilized” countries is to mass-produce specialized, throw-away items made with poor quality. Under this system, buying yet another product (green or otherwise) for the sake of conservation is, ultimately, disingenuous. So we find ourselves trapped and easily influenced by the superstitions and ideologies of Limitless Growth and Market Share. When we leave these economies of greed intact and fail to imagine (or, better yet, re-member) our local economies the cost is greater than the industrial accountants can actually assess. We lose our mutual trust, creativity, and interdependence–nothing less than true freedom. We lose our community in favor of corporate interest. And isn’t endless consumption the cliched byline of the “free market” (what an oxymoron!) anyway?
Maybe I’m missing the point, but could it be that all our “green” packaging more resembles the plastic commitments of horny teenagers “in love” than actual sustainable ecology? Let’s not buy another needless product, especially if in doing so we believe our responsibility is finished.
Shane Claiborne, an activist and founding member of The Simple Way community, described the challenge this way: “We wrestle to free ourselves from macro-charity and distant acts of charity that serve to legitimize apathetic lifestyles of good intentions but rob us of the gift of community” (The Irresistible Revolution). The answer isn’t merely to “stop consuming so much,” it is an invitation to work for ourselves; that is, an invitation to become creative producers in community. Make something, for Chrissakes! It’s fun!
p.s. My wife is pregnant!!! She’s almost five months along. And for those who are wondering we will be using those infamous cloth diapers. 
