Green Options

Last year, Häagen-Dazs announced it would invest a quarter of a million dollars into research on “Colony Collapse Disorder” — the mysterious ongoing disappearance of millions of honeybees in North America and Europe.  Is this mere corporate greenwashing, or does the premium ice cream icon deserve our affection (and our business)?

Häagen-Dazs has a vested interest in preserving and rescuing honeybees, since nearly 40% of their flavours rely on fruits and nuts pollinated by bees.  But we shouldn’t dismiss this as mere self-serving business interests.  If anything, we should wonder why this sort of investment is not much more common.

I’ve always thought that many of the issues I am concerned about—the environment, human rights, peace, overconsumption, animal welfare—are all really one big issue. Everywhere I look I see countless connections between many social, political, and environmental issues. I may be involved in many separate causes, but they overlap so often that I feel that I’m really just part of one big movement. Which is why when someone asks me why I’m vegetarian, I am so overwhelmed with reasons that I don’t know where to even start explaining. The top ones are the environment, animal rights, and health, but no matter what you call them, they’re all one big issue to me.

I’m not the only one who has noticed this overlap, of course. And rarely have I encountered such a thorough examination of the connections between animal welfare and just about every other issue that concerns me than in the book Why Animals Matter by Erin E. Williams and Margo DeMello.

Max admitted to a perpetual state of confusion yesterday, but when it comes to making the right choices for greening our lives, many of us feel the same way. We're surrounded by choices, particularly in how we spend our money, and more and more products and services are touting their environmental benefits. So, which is it: hybrid or high-mileage conventional vehicles? Biodegradeable disposeable products, or recycled ones? Paper or plastic?

Of course, we

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