Green Gone Wrong - Book Review

Here is the sypnosis/review I recently carried out for the book 'Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy is undermining the Environmental Revolution, Heather Rogers (2010), Scribner Book Company.

This excellent book does not cast a sceptical eye on climate change itself, but rather on the present consumer-led, free market strategy currently being employed to tackle climate change. Rogers challenges the notion of being able to shop our way out of the environmental crisis by researching current sustainable practices in an attempt to determine if such projects really are living up to their environmental proclamations. The results make for a disheartening read, with many ecological solutions stifled by economic and political interests whilst others inflict more damage on the environment they are supposed to support. This is not the case with all though, and the author does attempt to carve out some positives. The book deals with four areas well known to environmentalists:

Organic Farming
By talking with ‘beyond organic’ farmers in New York State, Foster reveals that organic certification is very expensive and increasingly not representative of truly organic produce. She reveals how standards are constantly being watered down by big business as demand for organic products increases. This has led to smaller farmers being put out of business as sellers and distributors demand far larger quantities than they can produce entirely organically. The author also visits several sugar cane plantations in Paraguay, where large areas of deforestation is taking place to create viable farming land for organic produce, highlighting the social and economic devastation this causes. It is also the case that certifiable organic practices are not actually being followed in some of these plantations. In particular monoculture practices, the opposition to which being one of the keystones of organic farming, are being employed.

Eco-Architecture
The author uses the comparison of BedZed in London and Freiburg/Vaubaun in Germany to demonstrate the present barriers to creating fully functioning sustainable communities. Both were designed with green credentials in mind however several elements of BedZed have failed, including the Biomass boiler and water treatment plant. The owners have since struggled to find the expertise required in proper maintenance and repair required for such new technologies. In contrast, Vaubaun produces a far lower ecological and carbon footprint through the removal and penalising of cars on site, solar generation and passivhaus building standards. The author argues this is because of the history of the Freiburg region and their commitment to green lifestyles which has fed through to the regions infrastructure, planning authorities and politics. The area is home of Germany’s Green Party who have maintained a strong present in both local and regional government for many decades. Germany has also embraced renewables in light of its historic objection to Nuclear power. Vaubaun continue to push boundaries with residents aiming to demonstrate the possibility of living in a 2000W life. This section as a whole is very positive – only citing the required political will required to make such improvements mandatory. Foster doesn’t however mention other drawbacks such as rebound effect or give mention to the whole life cost of building products.

Transportation
This section visits Indonesia to witness the devastation of the rainforest to make way for the growing of oil palm plantations. Ethanol (the key production of palm oil) emits less than 20% less CO² than fossil fuels in combustion. However when the production and destruction of ecosystems in developing countries is taken into account some research suggests that biofuels may actually emit more carbon. The author also aims her targets at the American car industry and their obsession with the SUV. It’s interesting to note that the Model T was built with an eye to keeping fuel consumption and cost to a minimum (26mpg) and today Fords best sellers is the F150 which runs at just under 15mpg. Ford have invested a lot in the sustainability of their factory production (obviously cutting costs in the meantime) but have focused on flex-fuel cars rather than hydrogen or plug in gas-electric cars. Their main argument for not implementing eco-cars is that there cost to manufacture is too high (an entire new assembly line would have to be created); they require charging too frequently and only have a range of around 40miles. Apart from the defunct biodiesel argument, many ford owners are actually unaware of the fact that these cars will actually run on biofuels. The author dispels the myth that these technologies are not there, and that effective distribution methods are possible, and gives the example of Chinas drive to build electric cars. However until this electricity is generated by renewable or clean sources we would just be replacing gasoline with coal, i.e. power stations. Indeed the technology does exist; they just don’t know how to make money from it. The internal combustion engine is just too powerful in terms of the profit it returns.

Air Travel & Carbon Offsetting
Here the book focuses first on tree planting and a mango plantation in Bangalore, India by the band Coldplay to offset their world tour – and the firm they employed to plant mango trees in a monsoon country where residents don’t have enough water to drink let alone feed the trees. Foster exposes the large discrepancies in the price firms’ offer for a ‘credit’, equal to one tonne of CO2 emissions. Beyond the lack of regulation and lack of disclosure amongst these firms, the idea of offsetting itself is a weak one. The emissions generated by current consumerism are immediate, whereas absorption takes several decades, deferring emissions for the next generation or two. Planting trees with shorter life spans absorb CO2 quicker, but also obviously die sooner, releasing their entire carbon load. While visiting a large scale biomass plant in Malavalli, India, the author discovers that jobs for local people are few and far between, with many roles going to favourable contacts, family members or external workers. There is also a lack of safety standards, with cobras and other snakes present in the palm leaves that manual labourers shovel by hand into the biomass incinerator. Sick leave is also unpaid. The energy generated from the plant does not go to local villages which lack the necessary electrical connection, instead being exported to the main grid for general consumption. Local people are also forced into buying wood to burn for heat as all the other biomass is taken to the plant – all things missed by certification. Some offset funds are also going to projects that are already built, thus not additional. The start-up of micro-solar generation enterprise companies is one potential plus point to be found in this chapter. These small scale entrepreneurs are good for getting projects off the ground, specifically for homes which currently have no connection to the grid at all. The problem comes when they are installed in homes with a grid connection. The result is that the locals only using the panels when the grid cuts out, which is often, rendering the panels practically redundant. Pricewise the panels struggle to compete with power generated from the grid, and their voltage is considered by many to be too weak.

Conclusion
The author argues that all of these green washed products give us the impression that we can consume our way out of climate change, when in effect the opposite is true. Foster argues that viable green products require a rejigging of our economy, not just in our choices as consumers and she advocates the need to move from an ownership model of consumerism to an access model. When viewed long term cutting emissions and energy use also provides a cut in costs, not an increase. However it is important that these savings are not ploughed back into energy intensive manufacturing or processing by firms. This consequence is also known as the Jevons Paradox, named after a 19th century economist William Stanley Jevons – whereby greater efficiencies lead to greater resource use rather than less.

Unfortunately in her notes on the possible I found that Fosters promoted solutions that were equally a little hazy. Hearing about agro-ecology projects in developing and third world countries is great but by using specific examples she fails to address one thing – that there are several problems with each proposed remedy and each will perhaps have their own individual solution. If anything this book shows that there is no silver bullet to reduce our demands on the environment without impacting our lifestyles, yet the author offers us individual solutions. Although her calls for more accountable certification boards are of merit, this is surely how the existing certification boards started out before being chipped away by big business and government. The description of co-operative farmers was definitely encouraging, where the owners are the ultimate watchdogs. Here the farmers have withdrawn from contracts with supermarkets when they begin using the very factory processes that they oppose. As our governments seek to kick-start economic growth through the will of the markets, it would appear that we are also betting our environment on their ability to create demand. From this book, it would appear futile, and leave us in an even bigger mess than we are now.