The "407", that notorious ribbon of concrete and crash barriers that slices across the northern half of Toronto has really done it now. The 407 ETR marketing types have introduced a "loyalty program" that rewards people for driving more. To paraphrase their own lame slogan: Ladies and gentleman… start your fossil fuel, greenhouse gas-emitting engines. Drive at least 400 KM a month during the six-month "qualifying period" and you could win yourself some free kilometers. As the world slowly wakes up to the reality of global warming, the 407 geniuses want to pay you to stay asleep at the wheel and drive like there's no tomorrow. Way to go 407. Idiots.
On the other hand, at least the 407 ETR suits are honest about what they are doing. In reality their approach is not all that different from thousands of "green" marketing schemes — like airlines that encourage flyers to pay an extra green tax to make up for the tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel they are about to ignite in the upper atmosphere. Captain: "We'll burn 183,380 litres of fuel on this flight". Passenger: "Well then, here's 20 bucks. Go plant a tree".
For too long we have allowed corporate interests to appropriate Green as a mere marketing ploy. Do you buy the unbleached coffee filters? Do you heave a sigh of relief when the 60-inch big screen TV arrives wrapped in recycled cardboard (while ignoring the 20 pounds of packing foam)? Do you pay the extra 10 cents a litre for clean gasoline? If only these token gestures could actually save the place.
Sadly, the emptiness and dishonesty of these schemes is just a corporate reflection of the established Liberal<=>Conservative (they are interchangeable) political establishment. Any politician who can look people in the eye and bleat about "sustainable development" in a country with high immigration, dwindling fresh water, dwindling air quality and rapid soil depletion is full of CO2 (or some slimy, toxic effluent).
February 13th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Some are pleased by the sharper edge evident in this post.