There are two sayings
making the rounds these days: “Green is the new black” and “____ is the
new tobacco.”
Green being the new black means environmental
awareness has become hip. Rachel Sanderson wrote in a Reuters news story
that a market research firm in the U.K. had found that sales of organic,
free range or Fairtrade foods were surging and that “Green is the new
black in ethical Britain.” Meanwhile, fashion writer Suzy Menkes told
her International Herald Tribune readers “Why Green is the New
Black.” Why? Well, according to Bono of U2 and the Edun line of
clothing, “We have got to find ways of making our activism sexy, and
fashion is it.” Apparently the venerable Sierra Club agrees, because its
magazine portrayed fashion designer Katharine Hamnett as “making green
the new black.” Wouldn’t want to go back to wearing “hairy sacks,” said
Hamnett.
Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter proclaimed that (guess what?)
“Green is the new black” when he introduced the magazine’s green issue
last Spring. I’ve also seen the phrase used as a headline in the
magazines Time and Inc., in the Sunday Times, on
many websites and blogs, and in materials published by the UK
Environment Agency and the Australian City of Sydney. Somewhere along
the line, that phrase gained the status of a cliché.
Then there’s that business about the new tobacco. Unlike the color
metaphor, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus about what exactly is the
new tobacco. Writer Matthew Lynn wrote in
Bloomberg News last fall, “There is a very real possibility that
aviation is about to become the new tobacco – a product once universally
popular that is now socially unacceptable.”
Or maybe it’s junk food. In an effort to fight the rise in childhood
obesity, five of the largest snack food producers have said they will
start providing more nutritious foods to schools. Responding to the
move, Dr. Thomas Robinson, associate professor of pediatrics at the
Stanford School of Medicine, likened the problem as “similar to what
happened to tobacco over the last several decades.” Along the same
lines, the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation has warned that “fat is
the new tobacco.”
A British shareholder activist group argues that “oil is the new
tobacco,” with companies facing large law suits – similar to those
launched against tobacco firms – if they ignore the potential
consequences of global warming. Meanwhile, an Australian blogger feels
that cell phones could be “the new tobacco.” Then there’s Printing
World magazine, which asked, “Is offset litho the new tobacco?” (It
had something to do with meeting environmental regulations.)
As irritating as clichés can be, these two herald some strong steps in
the right direction. Public opinion polls show that the health and the
environment are at the top of people’s list of priorities right now. And
although I don’t think this concern involves merely having the right to
buy eco bubble bath, I do believe it means that most of us are willing
to make fundamental changes in our lives in order to insure a future for
our children. If it takes clichés to make people trade in their Hummers,
eat locally and organically, and stop smoking, I’m all for them.
Wendy Priesnitz, Editor
Read Editor Wendy
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