>invites are not environmentally friendly
As opposed to the sustainability of dozens of people traveling from near and far.
As opposed to the sustainability of dozens of people traveling from near and far.
Everybody seems to forget paper is a renewable resource. Cutting and re-growing as it is practiced in the regulated world (ie. all countries with stable governments) is actually good for the environment.
Missing forest for trees etc.
From the article: "Finally, invites are not environmentally friendly as they are one time use and easily lost or misplaced."
No, but they have in common that both != action.
>If someone twigs that they could cycle to work instead of driving - win.
I don't think those are actual wins. Those are empty feel good gestures when 350 million others will continue to just drive. Only coordinated action, and even better legislation, matters.
Easy small wins of that kind are feel-good gestures that get detrimental to actual change.
The goal should be making a difference, not token improvements.
The goal should be to maximize the impact of the changes you make.
To be a little more accurate, "They're doing what they choose to." Nobody does what they can.
My problem is in even saying that this is an environmental decision, like that matters at all.
Doing what you could would be choosing another solution.
I think the point people are trying to make is that it's silly, misleading, and hypocritical for people to pat themselves on the back for making a tiny token effort to protect the environment while participating in activities that are overall terrible for the environment.
If that's what they want to do, good for them, but let's not pretend they're making a real effort.
This is true about almost all human groups/movements though, and I'm not sure that environmentalists are more guilty than average.
But people who drive to work everyday still try and lecture me over nothings like putting a laptop on standby overnight.
I live within 8 miles of the office and subsequently put about 4,000 miles on my vehicle annually. I consume less fuel than 90% of the people in the office with new 'environmentally friendly' cars who live 40 miles away, yet it is I who receives the rash of shit. /rant
Micro-optimizations are often easier to wrap our heads around, so we tend to want to focus on them. They're also often situations where you can get a clear win rather than a much more imperfect improvement. In development, it's sometimes called bikeshedding. You see it often in financial planning where people would rather cut out their morning latte than focus on investing better.
This behavior makes little sense, but it does appear to be a fundamental human tendency and those who are better able to maintain perspective definitely have a huge advantage in life.
Dropping paper invitations has very little real inconvenience factor, so people do it and tout their environmentalism to receive their karma from their friends that care about that type of signaling.
When it comes to making a real sacrifice (e.g. not inviting people who would fly to the wedding), you will find very few people willing to do that.
It's the reason the prius is so incredibly popular compared to fully electric cars. It comes with the environmentalism bragging rights while still burning plenty of fuel so there is no change in lifestyle. Toyota was even nice enough to build it in a weird shape so people can easily see how forward thinking and smart you are.