Word: planetful
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...prosper, may you help preserve and save our planet for your children, and all future children of the world,” he concluded...
...recently saw somewhat of a panic with swine flu. Are viruses the thing that's going to wipe this planet clean, as opposed to nuclear bombs? It certainly is the one threat that seems to allow us to be irrational about things. A nuclear attack requires a device, it can be intercepted, it can only affect a certain area. There is a logic to the way it spreads. But a virus grows exponentially. Every time it expands, there's a casualty. It's closer to a panic - closer, therefore, to a very primal fear...
Many people on both the right and the left like to portray environmentalism as sacrifice - denying oneself some kind of pleasure (a heated pool, extra space in an SUV, the convenience of dry cleaning) in order to help save the planet. Conservatives do so partly because they believe pursuing self-interest in the form of material pleasures is necessary for the proper functioning of markets. Liberals do so because they believe rampant materialism can distort the proper functioning of democracies (and because "Yes We Can" T shirts don't need dry cleaning anyway). But what if environmentalism didn't really...
Idealistic environmentalists may not like these findings, but they should pay attention to them. Many hotels appeal to guests to reuse their towels with little cards asking them to help protect the planet. But as evolutionary psychologist Vladas Griskevicius of the University of Minnesota helped show in a 2008 Journal of Consumer Research paper (here's a PDF), hotel patrons are much more likely to reuse towels when informed that a majority of hotel guests do so than when they are merely asked to help save the environment...
...fact that celebrities buy green products. They might also consider keeping those products at a higher price, since penniless people can't afford to indulge in status-seeking and others will pay a premium for it. We may all be selfish and petty, but there's no reason the planet can't benefit from those shortcomings...