Fans’ Green Poster Contest Entries Thrown in the Trash at Jonas Brothers Show

Scores of hysterical young fans of Disney band the Jonas Brothers were sorely disappointed Sunday night after their entries in a band-sponsored green poster contest ended up in the trash. The kids and their parents stood in line for hours with posters that they had labored over for who knows how long, only to throw them in the garbage when organizers decided there were too many posters to judge.

From The Chicago Tribune:

The Jonases have teamed up with Chevy for a Green Team Jonas promotion with a lucrative prize: meeting Disney heartthrobs Nick, Joe and Kevin. The theme of the poster contest was about having fun and thinking green. So-called “Chevy Spotters” were to be in the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre parking lots looking for possible winners.

But many of the posters covered with glitter glue and puffy paint were thrown in the trash, likely destined to end up in landfills, because there were too many to be judged outside

and the posters weren’t allowed in the venue. Ticket takers said the posters were banned because they could obstruct fans’ views.

One worker said the posters would be given to the Jonases later. But that did little to ease the disappointment of young fans seen dejectedly throwing their posters into huge garbage bins before the show.

Way to fail that green contest – sheesh. I think these kids – and the organizers of the contest – failed to grasp what ‘green’ means, namely that throwing all of that stuff in the trash is far from eco-friendly. Obviously these girls just wanted to meet the Jonas Brothers, and nary a thought was given to the idea that trashing the posters went against the whole point.

The worker who offered the platitude that the posters would be given to the guys later clearly panicked at the idea of an angry mob of boy-crazy teens and made up a total lie – can you imagine the Jonases walking into a room stuffed to the ceiling with posters covered in glitter and puff paint? For those who don’t have young daughters or sisters, Jonas Brothers mania is said to rival that of Beatles fans in the ‘60s, though I think they come off more as an American version of Menudo.

Sounds like the whole thing was a bad idea. Nice try, people, but – ECO FAIL!

Link [The Chicago Tribune]
Photo credit: E! Online

Styrofoam Statue of Liberty Protest Rally Planned in St. Louis

UPDATE - The $6 million styrofoam statue of liberty commissioned by YTB for their convention this August is going to meet some resistance from environmentalists in the St. Louis, Missouri area.  YTB claims that the statue is a ‘tribute to the troops’, but the mind-boggling cost paid for this polluting nightmare could have been put to far better use, perhaps going directly to the troops and their families.

The protest rally will be held at the YTB convention, August 6th-10th, at the Edward Jones Dome.  Contact the person who posted the Craigslist notice for more info.

If you’re in the St. Louis area and plan to attend, please take photos and contact us!

For more info on the statue of liberty, check out our previous post - Eco Fail: Giant $6 Million Styrofoam Statue of Liberty One Big Polluting Mess

Eco Fail: Hybrid SUVs Just Aren’t Selling

Welcome HuffPo Readers! If you haven’t been here before, welcome to our little neck of the net. We cover the world of green with a fun, smarky smartass point of view. Visit our home page to see the other stories we’ve done and/or grab our RSS Feed.

Ah, sweet justice for the SUV. Detroit auto makers aren’t seeing the demand for hybrid SUVs that they thought would come this year as models like the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon were released. Only 1,100 have been sold since January, and the sales goal was 12,000 for the year, putting them pretty far behind.

The New York Times has it:

Giving a four-wheel drive Tahoe a gas-electric hybrid engine raises fuel economy for city driving to 20 miles a gallon from 14.

But to get the better mileage, consumers pay a high price: $53,000, at least $4,000 more than a conventional Tahoe.

Environmentalists see the jumbo hybrids as a small step forward in the effort to reduce America’s fuel consumption.

“Is this a green vehicle? I think it could be a lot greener,” said David Friedman, research director of the vehicles program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group in Washington that focuses on the environment. “The question is whether the improvement in fuel economy is worth the cost.”

Hybrid or not, large S.U.V.’s are fading fast in a market that is shifting quickly to smaller cars and crossovers, S.U.V.-like vehicles built on a car chassis.

While the hybrid 20/21 MPG is certainly an improvement over the 14/20 the non-hybrid SUVs typically get, the fact is that the Toyota Prius gets 46 MPG currently, and a new model set to be released next year will get over 100. That makes paying the extra money for the hybrid SUV seem like a pretty big waste. Consumers aren’t willing to pony up the extra cash, and with SUVs losing popularity in general, hybrid SUVs are looking to go the way of New Coke.

Hybrid SUVs may be a tiny bit better for the environment than regular SUVs, but that doesn’t make them an eco-friendly option. We were a bit afraid that hybrid SUVs would make people think they could have their cake and eat it too, using the ‘hybrid’ angle to defend dumb shit like suburban housewives with 2 kids driving behemoth vehicles to the grocery store. So, we’re happy that hybrid SUVs are an ECO FAIL. Down with SUVs!

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Mark Graham for the New York Times

The ‘King of All Stupidly Unnecessary Packaging Award’ Goes to AT&T

There’s unnecessary packaging, and then there is STUPIDLY unnecessary packaging. This lands firmly in the latter category.

Brett from TUAW was recently on the receiving end of a shipment from AT&T that stretches the imagination. His package from AT&T was shipped via DHL 2-day and came with a plastic bag and an invoice for “75011 MISC iPhone PPA BAG … $0.00.”

Was that box and bag packaged by robots? Are AT&T box packers so numb to their job that they don’t actually notice what they are working on? How did this dumbass trip up happen?

I’m gonna order me 30 or so of those MISC iPhone PPA Bags, they’ll come in handy the next time I have to move.

Eco Fail.

Link [TUAW] via [Gizmodo]

Sound the Alarms! Treehugger Bought an SUV

Treehugger, we really hate to do this. We love you like family. You have always been the eco-conscious big brother that helped us make the right decisions. But your justification for purchasing an SUV – and it’s not even a hybrid SUV – just doesn’t seem to jive. We’re sorry to give you a big fat ECO FAIL for that, bro.

Treehugger’s Mark Ontush (MJO) is based in Boston, has a family of three and telecommutes. His wife rides the bus to work. When his car, used primarily to pick up large purchases and haul visiting family around, gave out on him, he went into the dealership with the intention of getting a hybrid or Smart Car and came out with a Honda CRV. The reasoning is mostly based around, er, moving dishwashers.

From Treehugger:

Having space in a car is a funny thing - you don’t need it all the time, but when you need it, there aren’t a lot of options; you aren’t going to get a dishwasher into a Prius, or transport your extended family around when you are all together and going somewhere. So then you are into renting trucks and vans for these types of situations - which we did for years - and these rentals can really add up.

The other big item was safety. We realized that SUVs are often overrated in this regard, but the fact was that the SUV felt safer. I don’t know why this is exactly; you are up a little higher, it is heavier; you sort of feel that if you get hit, mass will be on your side. Again, this is one of those ‘probably never need it but nice to have things’; environmentally, it’s a luxury item. But the effect is pretty powerful and swayed our decision.

A commenter points out a previous Treehugger article, “SUV’s not safer for Kids”, in response. Other commenters wonder how much stuff MJO is buying every year that he needs to rent vans and trucks to the tune of $1500 total to bring it all home. And, uh, can’t your family ride the bus like everyone else? Tell them it’s part of the city experience!

Treehugger commenters can certainly be an ornery bunch, so it’s not surprising that this post got an SUV-load of scathing comments, but most of them had good points.

Sometimes I’m amazed that the rest of the world can manage to raise families without SUVs, the way they’re talked about in the States. – Ross

This does not sound like good enough justification. I’ve heard this before from my ‘green’ friends — who’s wives ultimately pushed the decision to an SUV.

[there was a wife involved, yes mjo]

When all else fails, blame it on the wife, right? My husband likes to pull that sometimes, too. It takes two, baby!

I generally agree with making the decision that’s right for you at the time, and certainly none of us are saints – but imagine if everyone in America reasoned this way. The fact that Mr. Ontush lives in Boston and not a suburb makes it even worse, since convenient, efficient mass transit abounds. We’re trying to get even suburban people to give up the SUVs, MJO, so when ‘green’ city people do it, it don’t look too good.

Link [Treehugger]

Paul McCartney Catches Lexus in a Big Time Eco-Fail

Sir Paul McCartney, or Macca as they call him across the pond, has once again proven that he’s no eco-fraud. Unlike some celebrities we know, he’s not green to be cool – he really does care. So when Lexus gifted him with a Hybrid Limousine to thank him for getting the word out for green automobiles, and he found out that said limousine was delivered by jet, he was understandably pissed.

Ecorazzi has it:

The gesture was nice, but Lexus chose to fly the car from Japan to Britain, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than the standard method of shipping.

A source told Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper: “…he was horrified after learning it was delivered by plane. Paul has always campaigned for green issues and he can’t understand why anyone would send an enormous car from Japan to Britain on a plane. “

No word yet from Lexus on this dubious choice.  They’re very generous with funding for green events and seem to have a legit interest in green options, so hopefully they’ll do something to make up for such an egregious misstep.

I’m itching to point out that any limousine, hybrid or not, isn’t a great choice when you could be riding in a far greener vehicle (though at least the Lexus hybrid limousine isn’t a stretch model). But, he’s Sir Paul, so I guess he gets away with that sort of thing – screaming mobs of fans and all. He wouldn’t want to ride in a car that a crowd of crazies could easily pick up and cart away to some secret Beatle Mania dungeon.

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

EarthFirst Blog Week in Review: March 10th - 14th

It was another busy last week here at the EarthFirst blog. We covered samurai swords, expensive green washed handbags, big business green hijinks by GM and Wal-Mart, expensive gas, the green Pope, “clean coal” crap, and toilet paper. We’ve nailed down the design for the new template which we’ll be rolling out in a few weeks. It looks great and we’re really excited to show it to our readers. Happy reading!

Have you subscribed to our RSS Feed? Why the hell not!?! Get on it already.

• Grocery Bills Soar as Retail Food Prices Spiral Up
• The War on Iraq is Costing $4,000 a Second, or About $120,000 in the Time It Took to Write This Headline
• Global Warming Doesn’t Necessarily Mean It Gets Warmer Everywhere All The Time
• Rant: Shut the F*&% Up About High Gas Prices
• Animals vs. Humans: Humanity Gets Pwned
• The Vatican Declares that Polluting the Earth is Now a Sin
• The Three Ingredient Vegan Junk Food You’ve Probably Been Eating for Years
• EcoGeek Kills “Clean Coal” Ad and Calls Them Out for the Greenwash
• Florida Senator Pushing Bill to Require Restaurants to Have “Enough” Toilet Paper on Roll
• GM CEO Rick Wagoner: Vice Chairman Bob Lutz Doesn’t Speak for GM on Global Warming
• Doggie Style Commute: Ride the Bitch Cruiser to Not-Safe-for-Work
• Coal- Cheap. Abundant. Cheap.
• What is RSS and How Can It Make My Life Better?
• Want to Create Jobs? Invest in Education and Mass Transit
• A $360 Cardboard Bag Coated with Water-Resistant Spray with a Leather Handle is NOT Green
• The Friday Video Round Up: Will Ferrell, Big Angry Fat Guys, Al Gore, and the Hummer Hybrid
• Wal-Mart CEO is a Master of the Obvious: Our Company is Not Green
• Japan Steel Works- Builds 600 Ton Parts for Nuclear Power Plants and Samurai Swords
• Eco-Fail! HGTV’s Green Home Giveaway and The Yukon Hybrid

Eco-Fail! HGTV’s Green Home Giveaway and The Yukon Hybrid

Huh?

How did the people behind the Green Home Giveaway promotion for HGTV choose a Yukon Hybrid to put in the driveway? Someone screwed uuuuuuupp. That thing is a monster of a truck pulling a whopping 21/22 MPG (the regular Yukon gets 14/20).

Weeeeeak. Haven’t they heard of the Prius?
Link [Ecorazzi]