Trying to "go green" is making me see red...

My minor is in business management with a concentration in ethics and social responsibility. With only one class left to fulfill my program requirements I have become well-schooled in just how humans, especially Americans, are generally evil leaches on the environment and the communities around the world. It has become hard not feel guilty for almost everything I do, use, consume, buy, drive, and throw out.

In an effort to become a conscientious consumer I am trying to make many changes to the way I live. This is difficult and sometimes exhausting. I have almost eliminated that big-box juggernaut-of-destruction, whose name cannot be mentioned, but starts with a W and ends in forced labor, environmental devastation, and community ruin. As a poor college student this is hard at times but I just can't feel good about purchasing something that I know contributes to all of that. As I learn more and more about the products that I use I find out just how much harm it all causes.

As if trying not to cause harm to the planet is not a hard enough task, I recently started reading "The Green Beauty Guide" by Julie Gabriel, and now I am learning about all of the harm I am doing to myself.

Gabriel illuminates just how many hazardous chemicals are in almost all of the products many people use. Not only are widely-used products full of carcinogens but also chemicals that cause neurological damage among many other things. For example, most deodorants are aluminum chloride based. Aluminum chloride has been linked to skin and breast cancers and Alzheimer's disease. So, in an effort not to stink and offend people, we may be slowly killing ourselves?

I will admit, when I read this my first thought was to throw out my deodorant immediately. But my second and more powerful thought was "not until I get a deodorant without aluminum chloride in it." I would rather put a dangerous chemical on my body than smell a little until I got to the store? Perhaps the possible neurological damage has already begun to set in.

The deodorant example is just one of hundreds in Gabriel's very well-researched and cited book. I discovered that just about every product I have in my house is full of chemicals which are all defined and the hazards are clearly laid out in glaring black and white in this book. I would share more with you but since it has essentially ruined life as I knew it when a trip to the store only meant finding good food I could afford and beauty products that worked, I will let you find out more on your own.

The other day, armed with all of my new found knowledge, I grabbed my reusable shopping bags and drove my toxin-emitting car to the supermarket with a fairly short shopping list. I felt empowered by all that I have learned and I was ready to make a difference in the world and my body just by making ethical and socially responsible purchases without toxic chemicals in them. Well, this turned out to be far less of an enjoyable experience than I had anticipated.

My first stop was in the peanut butter isle. I spent about fifteen minutes in the peanut butter isle. Why does it take fifteen minutes to pick out a peanut butter you ask? Because regular peanut butter contains preservatives that have been linked to cancer. OK, so you may think "just pick an all natural peanut butter and move on." I wish it were that simple. Just because it is labeled "natural" doesn't mean it is organic, and just because it is labeled "organic" doesn't mean that it is "certified organic". And when I finally found an all-natural-certified-organic peanut butter my wallet caught on fire BECAUSE IT COSTS $7.00!!!!! I am all for "going green" and saving the planet and saving myself, but $7.00 for peanut butter??

After I settled for an "all-natural-organic-but-possibly-not-certified-organic" peanut butter for $4.50 that I am probably going to go to hell for buying I moved on to the coffee isle. Trying to be ethical and green when choosing a coffee is like trying to decide if one would rather jump off of a bridge or be run over by a truck.

Not only should coffee be "certified organic" but also fair-trade and packaged in recyclable containers. I am sorry to all of the coffee-addicts who read this and would rather not know but oftentimes coffee is processed with chemicals similar to anti-freeze. And, because it is not an actual "ingredient" but a "precessing agent" coffee manufacturers do not have to list it as an ingredient. In addition, if you are not buying fair-trade coffee then you are contributing to forced labor. I don't know about anyone else but I don't want to drink my morning thunder with a side of anti-freeze and I don't want to have nightmares about five-year-old children picking coffee beans.

Needless to say, I spent about thirty-minutes in the coffee isle. If I found a fair-trade option, it wasn't "certified organic". If I found a fair-trade coffee, it was only "organic". When I finally found one with all of my criteria it was almost $10.00 for one-half-pound!!!! I AM A POOR COLLEGE STUDENT ONE WEEK FROM FINALS WHO CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT HER COFFEE!!! I guiltily chose a coffee that was organic but it was not labeled fair-trade for about $5.00 for a pound. I am a terrible person and someone suffered for my caffeine addiction. But, if I don't have my coffee everyone I come into contact with is going to suffer.

I spent my ride home in my planet-killing car feeling defeated, guilty, and stressed-out. I have decided that when I graduate I am going to take my degree, which I am sure is printed with with toxic ink on acid-laden paper, and fold it into a paper airplane and launch it into the nearest landfill. Then I am going to move to Bermuda, live in a hut made from certified-organic, fair-trade mud and find a way to manufacture chemical-free, nutritious, and fair-trade Twinkies, and give all of the profits to the local community. And yes, I am fully aware that I will have to walk to the coast and then swim to Bermuda so that I do not damage the environment by driving and flying on a plane to get there.