Money makes the world( and environmental trashing) go round!

I found the WWF "Money, greed, and the destruction nature web of life" to be a really intriguing piece of rhetoric that not so much described global warming, but more of how humans are destroying the environment. Using the "Money" song was a great touch on the part of the creator I think, to establish something catchy that almost everyone has heard at some point (i certainly had "moneymoneymoneymoneymoney" stuck in my head all day!). Using a cartoon style was also a smart move, because it gets people's attention without requiring them to think too much about it; its EASY to watch.

But as far as praise, thats all I've got for this video! Like Julian who also blogged about this, I was also  annoyed with the very reductionist stance that the video took. I think that  this is a big problem with a lot of global warming and environmental groups: by reducing things down to an absurdly simple point of view, they take away from their cause. A lot of people don't take environmentalist seriously I think, because of their (audience perceived) over exaggerated or oversimplified natures. To be blunt, this video is absurd. Nothing like this really happens in real life! Yes, trees get cut down in forests, and yes, oil spills kill animals. But the way the video portrays it, it looks like ruining the environment was all just a big "oops" instead of some calculated and planned thing that it really is. I think a lot of people realize this as well, and instead of taking away the message ("environmental destruction=bad, and we should stop"), its more, "well that was silly."

The worst part is, disrespect for the environment and global warming are very real things that need to be addressed and I firmly believe that we need to change our lifestyles to do that. But its hard to take things like this seriously with videos like the WWFs, which seem to almost downplay the trashing of the environment with its absurdity. There are many preconceived notions around environmentalists, and its unfortunate that many of them are negative.