A few months ago, WIRED magazine sounded off like they’ve got a pair. The topic? Green.

I don’t think there is one person on this earth aside from a few Zulu tribes, some members of China’s business community, and those who are already dead who doesn’t talk about “green.”

But this WIRED article is very different from what we’re used to hearing. The article challenged paradigms. Listed among the “heresies”:

• Don’t buy hybrids–buy used cars
• Embrace nuclear power
• Farm the forests
• Organics are not the answer
• A/C is ok
• Live in cities
• China is the solution, not the problem

Before we environmentalists mentally burn the WIRED staff at the stake and brand their green heresy with a scarlet letter, let’s hear them out.

Their argument is that we all know the environment is threatened on many fronts. These all need attention. However, global warming threatens to overhwhelm any progress made on other issues. This ecological problem outweighs all others. Nothing else matters if climate change plunges the planet into chaos. Since we’re in desperate straits, we need to slaughter the sacred cows of environmentalism.

And the world’s fastest-growing economies won’t forgo a higher standard of living in the name of climate science–so India and China might help devise the solutions the planet needs.

Accepting this argument has serious and complicated implications for branding green, cause marketing, and green partnering.

Will any number or type of green initiatives by companies have any meaning? Will these initiatives have any real effect on the environment…or worse…a deleterious effect? Would companies care to change their green policy?

And what is the next step for companies that accept this argument?

Source: WIRED Magazine

Christine Babick is a blogger at www.beneaththebrand.com. A marketing strategist and linguist, she specializes in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing.

Article Tags: Babick | brand | Branding | carbon | Christine | climate | ecology | environment | environmentalism | environmentalist | green marketing | marketing | WIRED
Filed under: Branding, Green Marketing, Message, Outlandish Statements