Are Americans optimistic about the environment, ignorant or just plain lazy? Are they fatigued from all the “green” messaging and cause marketing out there? Or are they just complacent? A recent Gallup poll has shown that “over time, Americans’ concerns about environmental problems have generally declined.”

That’s hard to believe when there’s more environmental damage caused by Americans and more news about this available to us than ever before.

Just this week, ships are avoiding their normal cargo routes so that they can keep burning dirty fuel and skirt new air pollution laws around California.

And across the country, residents in the watershed areas of Skaneateles and Otisco lakes in New York are fighting a bill that would permit “hydrofracking” – a natural gas mining method that’s destructive to ecosystems and freshwater – on their private lands.

These examples are both driven by economic concerns. The shippers don’t want to pay fines or spend money on improved rigs. New York’s cash-starved state government is considering a bill that will bring taxpayer dollars to the state, with mining jobs and corporate real estate deals to replace low profit farms that are on some of that private property now.

Making matters worse, state budgets for environmental programs have been slashed, so even government agencies are holding out a tin cup or soliciting donations to support their good green work. In Atlanta, the House just passed a bill that would allow their own Department of Natural Resources to conduct fundraising through a non-profit to make up for a smaller slice of the taxpayer money pie.

At least defense budgets are also feeling the pinch.

If a 20-year low in levels of environmental concern wasn’t totally caused by money problems, Gallup suggested optimism may be to blame; Americans believe the environment is improving.

Basic Reading:

“Global warming concerns have ebbed and flowed, dipping to the lowest point since 1997. They’ve fallen precipitously since 2007, from 41% who worry ‘a great deal’ to 28%. Of eight [key environmental] issues, Americans now worry the least about global warming and the most about drinking-water pollution, which has often been a top concern.” – via USA Today

“Thanks in large part to partisan bickering and scandals such as Snowpocalypse and ClimateGate, confusion over global warming has reached a fevered pitch. At the same time, the economic slump is swallowing the public’s attention. What we may be witnessing is an endemic shift in prioritization, which raises the question: What, if anything, can instill a renewed sense of purpose?” – Mother Jones

“Climate hasn’t yet become as partisan an issue as, say, health care and taxes. But it’s getting there.” – How Republicans Learned to Reject Climate Change via NPR

Further Resources:

A debate over cause marketing fatigue – how many messages will consumers care about? – AdAge

“‘Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.’ Jean Paul Richter. It seems that we humans are caught in the crushing curl of our own giant wave of trash. A long, sad and glorious tradition of using and dumping that spans the entirety of our time on earth…” – SuperEco.com

Ohio air quality officials complain the EPA is “trying to make us do too much too quickly,” on cutting smog – Cleveland.com

Are American Students Lazy? – InsideHigherEd.com

According to an EPA report, our air is getting cleaner relative to population growth and gross domestic product increases.

Image: rolands.lakis

The post EcoMeme: Optimism vs. Laziness appeared first on EcoSalon.

First Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, now gold diggers have upset environmentalists and economists. It’s been like 1849 online with blogs abuzz over gold prices, prospectors and water use in California.

The precious metal is priced at a record dollar high now, thanks in part to China and India snapping up gold reserves. Panic and pricing like that drives laid-off Californians to go panning and miners to “explore,” sometimes damaging the farthest corners of the Earth to get gold.

Eco- and business-bloggers alike want to know: Is the “value” of the ore real, especially since jewelry demand declined in the recession, and industrial demand for gold can often be met with other materials?

A fashion and custom jewelry designer, Lisa Linhardt, of Linhardt Design in New York City, says lots of bling seekers have no idea what environmental impact their fashion choices have until they find her. Focused on making “beautiful, sculptural pieces” first, she is also a green gold jeweler, in a good way.

Linhardt buys 100% recycled gold from casting houses and refineries that extract it from post consumer material, not newly-mined. She can also melt the jewelry you never wear to form something new in her studio (constructed with reclaimed barn wood). Gold’s value is real, she believes, but the industry needs a makeover.

Other designers should demand “Strict gold certification so we know what we’re buying is 100% recycled, and that the labor involved is fair trade,” she suggests. For now, she’s willing to do the original research and footwork herself.

Basic Reading:

“Jewelers are increasingly concerned about young shoppers who are becoming more educated about the impact of their purchasing decisions”¦” – GreenBiz.com feature on Cartier’s buying more responsibly-mined gold

“Gold is unlike any other commodity. It is costly to extract from the earth and to refine to a reasonable degree of purity. It is costly to store. It has no remaining uses as a producer good – equivalent or superior alternatives exist for all its industrial uses”¦Surprisingly people like to attach it to their earlobes or nostrils or to hang it around their necks.”– Financial Times blog entry discussing the true value of gold

“Many want to hide the unsavory aspects of how business is conducted in the jewelry industry. But a Blue Sky approach would have us differentiate ourselves by eliminating anything that disguises, hides or obfuscates practices within our industry. We want to differentiate ourselves by being upfront and having full disclosure. Then we want to advertise where we are supporting fair and ethical practices.” – An open letter to jewelers on how to deal with the “dirty” gold issue in FairJewelry.org

“Driven by record-high gold prices – [recently] $1,056 an ounce, double that of just three years ago – prospectors are flocking to the state”¦ Gold mining permits, or claims, on file with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for California have shot from 15,606 in 2005 to 23,974 this year”¦” – San Francisco Chronicle story on the New California Gold Rush

“California’s second gold rush has also created one recession-proof business. Keene Engineering of Chatsworth, Calif., makes the equipment you need to find gold – from plastic pans to large commercial rigs. The owners say their business has doubled”¦”-
MotherJones feature on the history of land use in California