Wall Street Journal Attacks the Rich Again
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 11.20.07
The all-new socially conscious, conserving, almost TreeHuggerish Wall Street Journal covers the Palm Beach waterfront again, finding all of the water scofflaws joining Nelson Peltz in the pool. They write "Palm Beach's water world highlights the drain on natural resources caused by today's wealthy and their ever-bigger estates. Efforts by everyday families to take shorter showers and let their lawns go brown are a drop in the bucket compared with the water use of mansion owners -- even when they're "conserving."-strong language from the WSJ. They quote the Audobon Society:
"It's an outrage that so much water is being used for single residences," says Eric Draper, deputy director of Audubon of Florida, an environmental group. "Our water supplies are at historically low levels and yet you see these big homes with perfectly green lawns." Mr. Draper added that it's "very difficult to tell Joe Homeowner to cut back on his water use if he knows that in Palm Beach they're not cutting back at all."
As Victor Laszlo said to Rick Blaine: "Welcome back to the fight. This time I know our side will win." ::Wall Street Journal
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Go Wall Street Journal! I think Robert Frank deserves a Pulitzer for his well-researched shaming of the water hogs.
What's up with the rich and their obsession with lawns, anyway? (For one more insane Palm Beach lawn, see my blog:
http://ecomorons.org/status-symbols/insane-lawns-2/ )
I'm down to 40 gallons a week... since my well pump broke ;)
I have to confess that I never expected the WSJ to be the first to name and shame the rich as anti-green.
It's cheered me up to think that the one publication they probably read has dropped the dime on them!
I know that they're rich and they can pay for it, but as they say in Spiderman "With great power comes great responsibility" What greater power is there is the US than being filthy stinking rich?
I strongly feel that people in this situation shouldn't see themselves as above conservation but champions of it. Most people can't afford to put solar panels on their homes, collect and purify water for drinking and put in composting toilets, but the people who can afford it don't seem to think these issues apply to them.
I am, of course, not talking about those who have picked up the coservation cross. I know that there are plenty of those people as well, but we naturally criticize more than we praise.