Y'all,
"Green" and "sustainable," and yes, even perhaps "biodiversity" are examples
of terms that have lost some of their utility because they have been
hijacked by Madison Avenue (ad nauseam) as buzz-words and sales gimmickry,
and often serve to cause the sheep to stray off into "greener" pastures
rather than into the brush where things are a lot more interesting. But
being "led down the garden path" is an epistemological fact of life, however
magnified by today's flim-flammers, creating confusion and making clear
communication difficult. Words, terms, need to have one meaning, or lacking
that a clear definition in context, but that is frustrated by reckless
generalization whereby any word can mean what you want it to mean, whether
or not others understand it the way you mean it or not. A lot of
qualification, if not reconstruction, is then required, just to get back to
the starting place.
Didn't Alice and the Red Queen have a discussion about this?
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Corbin, Jeffrey D." <corb...@union.edu>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2013 12:36 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Definition of "green"
Hello Ecologgers – Hopefully this isn't too tangential…
On behalf of a colleague, I am looking for articles that investigate what
the public perceives to be the meaning of "green". Despite the fact that
many of us subscribe to the concept of "green" or "sustainable" it can mean
many different things. (Though perhaps "sustainable" is easier to define).
And a related issue: are there other examples of movements that have grown
around relatively poorly-defined concepts? Biodiversity could be one…"No
nukes" another?
I realize that this is more of a question for political scientists, but I
thought some here might have some suggestions too.
Thanks in advance!
-Jeff
________________________________
************************************
Jeffrey D. Corbin
Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308
(518) 388-6097
http://jeffcorbin.org
************************************
________________________________
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