Americans Least Green - And Don't Care

NatGeo ^ | 7-12-2012 | Ker Than

[Sir Napsalot]

Americans are the the least likely to suffer from "green guilt" about their environmental impact, despite trailing the rest of the world in sustainable behavior, according to a new National Geographic survey.

This year's Greendex report, conducted by the National Geographic Society and the research consultancy GlobeScan, also found that Americans are the most confident that their individual actions can help the environment. (National Geographic News is a division of the Society.)

(How green are you? Find out with the Greendex calculator.)

"There's a disconnect there, and we hope the Greendex helps shed light on it," said Eric Whan, GlobeScan's director of sustainability.

"In our culture of consumption, we've sort of been indoctrinated to believe that we can buy ourselves out of environmental problems," said Whan, who's based in Toronto, Canada, another country ranked low in the survey.

.....

This year Americans ranked last in sustainable behavior, as they have every year since 2008. Just 21 percent of Americans reported feeling guilty about the impact they have on the environment, among the lowest of those surveyed.

Yet they had the most faith in an individual's ability to protect the environment, at 47 percent.

Consumers in India, China, and Brazil led the pack, with Greendex scores in the high fifties. Paradoxically, many Indians, Chinese, and Brazilians reported feeling the most guilt about their environmental impact and had the least confidence that their individual actions can help the environment.

....

[Sir Napsalot]

Green guilt? What is that?

I've heard of 'green with envy', like everybody else is green with envy at USA.

[cyclotic]

Got no such thing as green guilt. The recycle bin the company gave me remains far under my desk and is used for storage. We recycle cans at home only because we pay by the bag for trash pickup but not for recycled garbage. I probably committed a crime by buying oil based polyurethane out of state and transported it back home for my hardwood floors. The state in which I reside is only allowed to sell Low VOC products. It happens to be my career expertise and I know the good stuff works better.

[yldstrk]

I went through that green garbage back in the 70s and i ain’t buying it again. Truck loads of wet papers sitting and rotting etc. That being said, I do try to only put natural stuff in my house. But I am not replacing a paid for car with a smart car, or reusing cloth grocery bags which are filthy and disgusting and even the sackers here loathe them.

[Dr. Sivana]

Consumers in India, China, and Brazil led the pack

What? Mexico City didn't make the list? Well, yeah, the consumers might lead the pack, but the industry in these places might not score so well on the scale. Let's see . . . Ganges River, open sewers in Calcutta, clearing the rain forest, lots of burning of coal in industry without much to mitigate output. I don't begrudge these folks having their industrial expansion, but it is laughable to think that Americans feeling guilty and refilling water bottles would make more of a dent for the local environment than modern sanitation and industrial methods.

[Thrownatbirth]

Scored a 33 and no guilt whatsoever.

[Dr. Sivana]

The state in which I reside is only allowed to sell Low VOC products.

I won't tell them about your oil based polyurethanes if you don't tell them about my regular flow Canadian toilets.

[max americana]

I work here in liberal Hollywood and only the white liberals use that putrid cloth bag. The mexicans are just laughing at these morons.

[Wildbill22]

Greendex score of 19,
Woohoo!!!!!!!!!

[Past Your Eyes]

Screw the National Geographic. Same with Smithsonian Magazine. I used to look forward to it coming. No more. It has a new editor recently and it really creates a vacuum now. Just more glowbull warming, liberal claptrap evolution tripe. :(

[impimp]

Did you cheat on the quiz? I got a 37 and I am not green at all.

[Sir Napsalot]

You win. ;-))

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What's to feel guilty about?

Global temperatures have been declining for 2000 years when you don't use the fraudulent data used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to start the global warming hysteria.

The Tree Ring Data Scandal

New tree ring study shows 2000 years of cooling

[MuttTheHoople]

I’m at 35.

[FreedomPoster]

I dropped my National Geo subscription more than a dozen years ago. Had been a subscriber for 3 decades, and just couldn’t take their extremist Leftism and overdone watermelon Green nonsense any longer.

[Sir Napsalot]

I know. I used to love the great photography and read the stories around the world in the early 80s.

Then it changed.

[Kickass Conservative]

I almost bought a Green 2013 Boss 302 over the weekend.

I couldn’t get the Wife to go along, so she must be a Gross Polluter.

[eclecticEel]

Well, I got a GreenDex score of 50, which accordingly would put me on the global high end of environmental virtue. Why? Every question they asked about what I did specifically for the environment I answered with a negative. The only real question I answered in a way that they would find positive is when I responded that I drive but 5000 miles per year (which is true, I hardly drive at all).

I guess that’s all they care about. Which explains why China and India score so “high” in their ranking.

Oh, I guess I also truthfully said that I don’t have an air conditioner in my home - I can’t help that I live in a locale that never gets above 80.

[ElPaseo]

Horse pucky.

Every been to Eastern Europe or China?

[bgill]

1) there is no public transportation here
2) there is no recycle program here
3) you better believe I’m turning on the A/C in 100 degree weather
4) there’s no bleepin’ way I’m getting in a teeny tiny mico sized car
5) I don’t give a treehugger’s behind what my score is
6) Green guilt should mean guilt of green companies stealing my hard earned tax dollars.

[youngidiot]

I score a 29. I couldn't possibly care less.