(Lygenztia *25) Environmental "activists"..or hypocrites?

Foreword"cause celebre" defined ..." is an issue or incident typically arousing widespread controversy... outside campaigning and heated public debate."

On to the Lygenztia........

I watched with interest a couple of recent environmental campaigns in my hometown, some with a global scope. Environmental campaigns are good, they raise awareness..make people think and generally bring issues to the fore of the social conscience. (concious too???)

Now before you go getting all in a dither, I am in full favour of environmental causes. Who the hell in their right mind isn't?

But the cause, doesn't always seem to have the duration of the ensuing cleanup. The effort and planning seem to be very intense for the event and awareness..but then the subsequent cleanup, well, they don't have "time" for that, because they have moved onto another "cause celebre".

Am I the only one seeing the irony here?

Example 1

We had a protest against a Walmart opening..labour issues, competiton and EXCESSIVE PACKAGING were some of the issues...and good issues to talk about, too. So, they posted signs all around town to make people aware of the "cause celebre" and the meeting.But guess what? They didn't take down, or clean up all of their old signs. The town workers had to do it. Doesn't that kind of fly in the face of the "excessive packaging" issue?

Great issue, but lead by example.

Example 2

Earth Hour was a great event. Not sure that it had any discernible effect on the environment, but it sure got people thinking and it became another "cause celebre". If anything, it brought communities closer together and I suspect, will cause a baby boom approximately 9 months from Earth Hour.

Signs everywhere..including a large placard taped on a beautiful, old maple tree behind my house. You guessed it, signs were left up all over the place and guess who ended up taking them down? Town staff.

They ended up damaging the fragile spring bark (see photo) when attaching the sign. To add to this, the gobs of tape left on this maple could potentialy damage the tree's bark and health further. I removed it, because I love this old tree. I wouldn't chain myself to it, or anything silly like that, but I sure would be upset if it were to be cut down...or die of negligence. It has provided me with plenty of friendly shade for me to drink beer under.

If the awareness of the campaign causes environmental damage....does the end justify the means?

The energy placed into awareness has to equal the effort put into the subsequent cleanup, or your cause is nothing but hypocrisy of the worst kind...and they have no credibility whatsoever.