2009 Anti-Green Awards: The Worst of Everything
by Eric Leech, New York, NY 
on 05.12.09
Photo via: M1khaela
The green movement has always had its share of both winners and losers. Today, we look at a few of the top losers for 2009. Hopefully with such a shameful honor to be bestowed upon them, they will clean-up their act for next year's round of awards. We can always hope anyway. Let the shaming begin!
Worst Anti-Green Car
Photo via: http2007
And the award goes to... the Lamborghini Murciélago (manual shift)
We have to distinguish that it is the manual shift model, as interestingly enough, it was the automatic transmission version that received second place. Hummer bashing has been the norm here on Treehugger, but there is a worst offender out there. The Murciélago flies like... well, a bat driving a Lamborghini Murciélago out of hell. It has a V-12, 631 horsepower, costs between $350,000 and $405,000, receives 8 mpg in the city, 13 mpg on the highway, and will cost the average owner around $4,395 in gas a year. “This $405,000 hypercar is, in short, a great big booger flicked in the face of respectability (or a Treehugger for that matter)," comments Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times.
Worst Anti-Green Home Design
And the award goes to... Antilla
Part of the green movement involves living as simple of a life as anyone needs. Millionaires such as Tom Hanks seem to have a grasp of this concept, but Indian trillionaire, Mukesh Ambani, obviously does not. Antilla, or what most of us Treehuggers would refer to it as Godzilla, is a ridiculous, $1 billion, 27-story high (although technically 60 stories due to the heights of the ceilings), glass wall home. It features its own health club, movie theater, helicopter landing pad, 600 servants, 168 car garage, and a garden on each floor. You could house most of the poor in India in this mansion, yet all these resources have sadly gone towards just one man's whim to build the most expensive house in the world... big freakin' deal!
Worst Anti-Green Apartment Building
And the award goes to... the En-Suite Sky Garage
There are a lot of extravagant ways to spend a million dollars, but here is one that is a slap in the face of the green movement in more than just one way. The En-Suite Sky Garage is a high-rise apartment building going up in Chelsea, New York. It is the only apartment building in the world which allows your gas guzzler to move in along with you. Each tenant is given a key-lock that will allow them to drive into an elevator big enough for a Cadillac SUV, ride up to their apartment floor, then park their vehicle right in their own 300 square foot garage situated within their apartment. And here I thought having a covered parking garage in New York was considered a frivolous luxury.
Worst Anti-Green Celebrity
Photo via: Ricardo Alvarez
And the award goes to... Mariah Carey
Ms. Carey had some pretty tough competition this year. She looks so innocent touting her Mac book and innocent grin, I almost hate to bestow her with such shame, but the peoples choice on GreenDaily.com and Bebo.com have left me no choice. 20,000 people were surveyed this year, and despite John Trovolta and hi commercial airline enterprise situated in his own backyard, it turns out that Ms. Carey flies the friendly skies a heck of a lot more. She uses her private jet like a horse uses its hooves to walk from one side of the fence to the other. It is also rumored that she flies her personal trainer all the way from St. Barts to New York just for a training session. Come on Mariah, just buy a Billy Blanks Tae Bo workout video like everybody else!
Retrofit the 'burbs. That's rich. I live in the city (well, in Urban San Diego, which Pretends to be a city! haha), and more new building is going on there than IN the suburbs. Well, maybe not More, but it seems like it. None of Those urban places are doing any better. Like down the street where they tore down the 100 year old house, threw the remains in the dump, and built a modern prefab looking thing. Meh. And it's not Green at all. Just Cheap. What San Diego, and California, needs isa requirement that ALL new development utilize at least the simplest of green technology. Solar? People pay out the yingyang to live here because of the sunshine. USE IT! Gray water? In the area where I live most houses are 80-110 years old, built on raised foundations. Totally easy to dissect and rebuild the plumbing to water the yard. But in California ALL grey water must be subsoil. ONE company retrofits for greywater, and it costs THOUSANDS of dollars. Ridiculous. Not to mention, my soapbox is completely recyclable. hahaha!