Green Things on St. Patrick’s Day
On this day of all things green, USNews.com has a list of 5 Things That are Green on St. Patrick’s Day.
Here are the five:
Beer
Food
Transit
River
Parades
The good thing? They add a green note to each. St. Patrick’s Day has become sort of a pre-Earth Day, due to its color association. And the fact that cities have made attempts to host St Patrick’s Day events that are more environmentally aware.
The bad? The point may not be all that well taken. See what they say about rivers:
Rivers (literally, yes; environmentally, kinda). The Chicago River received its annual dose of green dye this weekend, and though the formula is kept secret, the Chicago’s Journeymen Plumbers Union vow that the dye is nontoxic and environmentally
friendly. Notes the , “40 pounds of dye is a proverbial drop in the bucket compared to all the other stuff that’s in the Chicago River,” which is known to contain mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls.
So, are they saying that it’s OK to pollute a little, since there is so much pollution already in there? What kind of message does that send? Should we think: “go ahead and drive everywhere, there’s already a ton of cars on the road anyway, so your emissions are just a drop in the bucket”?
I think that type of thinking and writing are irresponsible. What do you think?
