In recent years marketers and politicians have become increasingly enamoured of creating environmental myths. Marketers want to encourage sales of their products and to increase the chances of getting government grants while politicians want to look as if they care about the environment (to be fair, many of them do). Here, in no order of priority, are a few of what I consider to be environmental myths.
MYTH: Car pooling is good for the environment.
FACT: Car pooling does nothing to decrease auto emissions. Car pooling is an effective and intelligent means for commuters to save money on gasoline and on parking. It is generally recognized that providing more roads or road lanes results immediately in generating additional rush hour traffic to fill it. Similarly, when four people "pool" and three cars are left at home this simply makes room for three more cars on the road.
MYTH: The local "communal" membership car rental company is environmentally friendly because people can drive without having to own their own car and thus create less pollution.
FACT: Most people who rent would not otherwise buy. That's why they are renting. And, whether you own or rent, the equivalent size car that you drive generates the same amount of pollutants. Offering affordable solutions to enable more people to drive cars creates more, not less, exhaust pollution. In case anyone is wondering, I consider car rental services to be fantastic as long as they provide efficient and money-saving ways to allow non-car owners the convenience of driving. But car renting is not about the environment, it is about saving money.
FICTION OR FACT? Using cloth baby diapers is less wasteful than landfill-filling disposable diapers. Actually, the jury is still out because, while cloth diapers are used again and again they take up large amounts of energy, water and detergents in their very constant laundering and re-laundering. Babies are that way - I know.
MYTH: Montreal has too much traffic and this creates unnecessarily high levels of vehicle emission pollution.
WRONG: Montreal has too little traffic. Outside of rush hour our streets have extremely little traffic and there only appears to be a lot because our traffic systems are so badly designed that they create traffic jams even when there is little or no traffic. When you are in a car there always seems to be lots of traffic because the little there is in front of you is being incessantly stopped and started by ill-synchronized and overly ubiquitous traffic lights and stop signs. If you want to gauge the actual amount of Montreal daytime traffic, stand on any sidewalk and count the passing vehicles. Then go to any other big city in the world and repeat the exercise on a comparable street. You will find that Montreal does not even have a third of the traffic and this is hardly surprising because there is very little happening in our economy.
Our economy, and the welfare of each and every one of us is currently, as elsewhere in the world, based on the comings and goings of people and goods in vehicles on the roads and increases in traffic volume, simply reflect the generation of more money and more local jobs. For, while individuals can often switch to public transit, business cannot and non rush hour traffic volume is mostly an indicator of business vitality. What we really want is to have well-organized roads systems with traffic that circulates in a manner that does not threaten the safety of the rest of us but which gets stuff delivered promptly and at low cost.
FICTION OR FACT? Recycled paper and fabrics save resources and cut down on waste. The jury is still out on this because recycled paper and fabrics require energy-guzzling factories to recycle them but, more importantly, because recycling programs often tend to convince otherwise responsible people to waste more. After all, the logic says, if our waste will be recycled it is not really waste. I recycle every scrap of everything recyclable that passes though my hands but I often suspect that I am part of a broader responsibility-training-program rather than a serious short term waste reduction effort. Recycling needs to be combined with reduced wasteful consumption.
MYTH: Those annoying Publi-Sac weekly distributions of advertising flyers and the giveaway Métro newspapers are a criminal waste and should be banned.
FACT: These distributions are no more wasteful than daily newspapers and like daily newspapers, nobody gets them unless they want them. Publi-Sac will give you a sticker to say ‘no-thank you' to its deliveries or you can get a sticker from your municipality to say "no" to all unaddressed commercial deliveries (this does not apply to newspapers). Canada Post is exempt from municipal regulations but, if you put a note on your mailbox reading "no unaddressed deliveries, please", they will attach their own sticker and respect your wishes.
MYTH: Municipal tap water is not good enough to drink and bottled water is better.
WRONG: There is no environmental argument here. Regular users of bottled water are "anti-environmental" and complicit in one of the world's most environmentally unfriendly private activities. Municipal water supplies, in Canada at least, are subjected to far higher legal standards of testing and regulation than private bottled water supplies. Bottled water may often taste better than tap water but it is not safer. If you want to help the planet, stay healthy and have better tasting water at the same time, buy a filter and cut out on needless plastic water bottle waste.
MYTH: Giving five cent rebates for people who refuse plastic bags at the checkout is a good way to cut down on plastic bag waste and help the environment.
FACT: Most people who carry their own bags and refuse plastic are doing so because they want to, and not to save five cents, while those who don't bother suffer no penalty. Plastic bags at grocery stores and elsewhere could be virtually eliminated overnight by the simple imposition of a hefty recipient tax on them. Most people would be unwilling to pay, say 25 cents per plastic bag, and alternative reusable bags would then promptly appear in almost every shoppers' hands.
MYTH: Having people consume less is the key to protecting the environment.
FACT: The real problem is that we have too many people on our planet. And, no, I do not have any solutions to suggest for that.
Comments: jeremy.searle@sympatico.ca
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