Every few days, I scour through dozens of technology blogs for my supervisor, spotlighting the newest and newsiest products and trends in Techland. Non-techies who don’t follow that kind of thing (like I was before I started doing these updates) wouldn’t believe the number of advanced, expensive gadgets people are designing, creating and marketing across the world on a daily basis. It’s mind boggling.

 

What’s even more astounding, though, is that these companies wouldn’t be designing such gewgaws at such alarming rates if there weren’t a market for them. It’s not just in-demand business folks and wealthy, well-networked individuals who are pouncing upon the latest Blackberries, multimedia in-car navigation devices, and sleek, high-performance laptops. In fact, most of these products are geared toward the everywoman and man who want to make their lives more convenient, more fashionable, more…something.

 

In honor of Earth Day a couple of weeks ago, most of the tech blogs featured an extra dosage of “green” gadgets and products. So in addition to compiling information for my supervisor, I set out to make a list of the coolest, greenest, and most noteworthy eco-friendly devices, trends and companies for Windmill readers, and for myself.

 

As you can see, I never published that list. I started off with quirky things like biodegradable condoms, bamboo laptop cases, and solar-powered electronic chargers. But my hunt for products worth mentioning on my oh-so-reputable and elite blog quickly turned into a search for the compostable needle in a stinky, carbon-emitting turd-stack. (Ewww.)

 

More than anything, I kept returning to products like solar power vending machines and turf-lawn chairs—contraptions that are either superfluous, or which serve little practical purposes other than to give the impression that their owners are environmentally conscious.

 

On the whole, it’s great that going green has become as hip as skinny jeans and skinny lattes in mainstream America. But of course, those shirts from Old Navy or Target sporting nature graphics and emanating righteous couture only add to our problem once you trace the process of how this shirt ended up in your neighborhood clothing store. Same goes with the laptop cases and low-wattage computers.

 

Today, Feminste forwarded me to a video by Annie Leonard, a tireless advocate for sustainability practices worldwide, called the “The Story of Stuff.” The short documentary puts the deceptive process of consumerism in perspective, and sheds light on the often ignored externalized costs our planet and its inhabitants endure for these products. It’s harrowing.

 

One of the most startling facts is that the most highly-contaminated food product in our food chain is …. guess. Not soda. Not coffee. Not alcohol. It’s human breast milk, the stuff we give to the most innocent creatures on this planet—to the future of this planet.

 

Now I’ve never been one to get cloy and giddy at the sight of kids. To be honest, I’ve always been kind of scared of them. “Just think of them as regular people,” a friend said to me once when I was thinking of being a tutor. “Yeah,” I responded. “That’s exactly what scares me about them.” But listening to my co-workers talk about their kids and engaging in conversations with children at work everyday has taken a hammer to my young, stoic, self-involved shell. All of a sudden, it was my voice that chirped and my head that tilted to the side like a bird the other day when a four day-old and her parents greeted me in line.

 

Back to my point: my current blossoming infatuation with children took a sharp hit from this video. That statistic about breast milk is the perfect illustration of the cyclical effects our convoluted supply line has on our society. We unknowingly ingest so many pollutants over the years that the toxins are literally coming out of us.

 

The video does a great job at simplifying—but not at the expense of accuracy—the process by which products find their ways into our homes, and the hidden players and egregious policies involved in the extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of these items. This isn’t just another video of scare tactics and statistics like my post is about to become. It’s an enlightening, digestible display of American society consumerism and fashion sense.

 

Basically, we’ve gotten carried away. 99% of the products that go through the cycle of production are trashed within six months of their purchase, leading us to produce 4.5 pounds of garbage a day. We only hold onto 1% of our purchases for more than half a year. One percent. Why? Well, one reason ties back to those tech blogs. Most of us derive some level of comfort from being fashionable, and it makes sense—our fashion choices help define our identity. Now that being green is en mode, more people are making conscientious purchases, like opting for a Prius or high-mileage car instead of SUVs. But thanks largely to the barrages of advertisements we ingest everyday—we see as many ads in one day as people 100 years ago would see in a lifetime—many of us have relied on such products not just to add flavor to our lives, but to build a foundation for our lifestyles. We rely on them for happiness, and that’s quite a precarious framework to live within for we all know such possessions alone don’t create happiness. They’re like sugar. One taste leaves you with an even fiercer craving for another, and then for another, and then for yet another. For 4.5 pounds a day, in fact.

 

Our addiction to consuming is a problem in and of itself. But the greater problem is that for every one garbage can I put out, 70 garbage cans are produced in the earlier stages of production. It’s our corporations and government that have the greatest potential to effect serious change, and they’re shirking this responsibility. So again, it’s up to us to demand greater transparency of and accountability for the current cycle of consumerism in the U.S., as this video does. (PS. Check out the current edition of GOOD magazine for the lowdown on what steps major US companies have made to become more sustainable.)

 

I don’t mean to get preachy. You all have heard these arguments before, and can watch Leonard lay the story out in a more visually stimulating way than I have. And I really shouldn’t have been so disappointed with the dearth of practical, eco-friendly products advertised on Earth Day. The technology field specifically and our society generally are almost entirely product driven, and largely frill-driven as well. It’s the reality of our culture. Until a serious crisis convinces us otherwise, most people will opt for quick fixes than much more earnest attempts to address our environmental problems. I just wonder sometimes what it will take.

 

In the meantime, I’m forwarding Leonard’s video and advice for greener living to you, and wishing you happiness in whatever sustainable form suits you best. Me? I’m gonna make myself and my buddies a Cinco de Mayo pomegranate margarita tonight with fair-trade, agave-sweetened margarita mix.

 

Cheers.