Environmental Activist Responsibility Proposition

Today I was accosted not once, not twice, but three times by Greenpeace activists standing outside a local grocery store looking for signatures for an environmental proposition. Now normally I don’t have have a problem with petitioners outside, but what caught my attention was the blatant disregard for the environment.

One of the people had a cup of coffee. Didn’t he realize the amount of energy and environmental damage that cup of coffee causes? It had to be shipped from the country of origin to the United States. Then it needed to use vast amounts of energy to be roasted, then shipped to the local store. Then energy was used to heat the brewing water to brew the coffee. Overall a very energy intensive drink for an environmentalist to choose. A simple cup of water and a decent night’s sleep would have been a much better environmental choice.

To top it off his cup of coffee wasn’t in a reusable cup, it was in a disposable cup. Doesn’t he know that most coffee houses bribe you for bringing in your own cup with a discount? What a waste, here’s a person who asking me to change go others operates, but he can’t be bothered to clean a cup?

Then there was his adornments on his face. Does he not know the environmental destruction that comes along with extracting metal from the earth? Obviously he didn’t since he adorned his face with metal. In the United States most metal is smelted using vast amounts of energy coming mainly from coal sources. I found this especially ironic since his fellow Greenpeace activist had an anti-coal energy shirt on.

Maybe instead of what ever proposition they were pedaling they should go with the Environmental Activist Responsibility Proposition. This proposition would require any member of an environmental activist group to be on a government list along with a list of environmentally friendly products. The activist would then have to declare themselves as such when they went shopping to ensure everything they purchase was on the product lists. Of course we need to make sure that the products are environmentally friendly so detailed environmental impact statements would be required before the products could be sold to them.

No doubt creating the list, maintaining it and doing the environmental reports for the products will cost lots of money. Since most environmental activists think money should be no object to save the environment they should be charged a higher sales tax rate when they purchase products as well as requiring the environmental activist groups to register with the State with a large fee. This way the programs won’t strap the cash starved State of California without any additional out of pocket costs.

If they get it on the ballot I’d vote for it. An added benefit would be when they petitioned me to sign their environmental petition they wouldn’t turn me off with their blatant disregard of the environment through their actions.