ThirstyFish

You might remember the scene where Captain Rex Kramer beats up activists and missionaries at the airport lobby from the 1980 comedy classic Airplane!. Izmir Alsancak is reminiscent of that. Greenpeace activists (fundraisers) are particularly insistent. Nice guy, by the way.

In 2005, comedian Stephen Colbert coined the word truthiness. Truthiness, is the truth "felt in the gut" without regard to logic or factual evidence. And the term Greenwashing describes the deceptive use of marketing to label products as "green" and promoting the perception that an organization's products, mission or policies are environmentally friendly. Along those lines, "Greeniness" has to be defined as eco-friendliness we "feel in the gut" without any regard for the true scale and seriousness of environmental issues. Drinking coffee from recycled paper cups, driving a Toyota Prius, using compact fluorescent light bulbs, riding our bike to work, recycling our garbage or donating a few dollars to an environmental organization might leave us with a sense of "greeniness", but it does little to address actual environmental issues, and it distracts us from the extent of the problem.

Take for example recycling. The benefit of recycling is at the best insignificant, and it could even be bad for the environment. The Toyota Prius, greenwashed as "eco-friendly", could actually be harming the environment if production and waste are considered together with carbon emissions.

At this point in history, we have to seriously consider that civilization, more specifically, industrial civilization itself is the problem. Industry is the greatest threat to the environment today, and action taken at a consumer level is pretty much insignificant. No amount of "eco-friendliness" is going to stop the impending omnicide. Either we have to reconsider and reinvent industrialization, or outright stop it. No matter what, "our way of life" is unsustainable and is bound to change.