By Robert Bradley Jr.
Call it fringism on display–or a dodge from conspicuous consumption.
Sam Harrington authored the following for Yale Climate Connections, which reports on all-things-climate-alarmism with a staff of twenty-four (23 writers and one cartoonist). The highlights of her Six Ways to Throw a Climate-Friendly Wedding—and Save Money follow.
“When my fiancée and I got engaged, we knew we wanted to celebrate our relationship in the company of our loved ones,” she begins. “As a climate journalist and a scientist interested in sustainability, we also knew we didn’t want our wedding to cause a lot of harm to the environment and climate.” She continues:
The average U.S. wedding generates roughly 56 tons of carbon pollution. That’s over three times the amount the average American produces in a year and almost nine times more than the global average per person. In addition to climate-warming pollution, weddings generate a lot of food and single-use plastic waste — by some estimates, the average wedding generates 400 pounds of waste.
Several “planet friendly” strategies are emphasized:
“Tighten your guest list.” Fewer people (why were they born anyway, Paul Ehrlich might have asked?). Fewer flights. Smaller places for conditioned air.
“Consider meat alternatives and look into venues that compost.”
“Choose a venue that is powered by renewable energy.”
“Use rentals or thrift items for decor, clothing, and more.”
And finally, “Talk about it!”
She adds:
Share climate action commitments with planners, venues, guests, and with anyone who will listen. The best way to exponentially grow the impact of the climate action that you take in your life is to normalize it for other people.
Hard Questions
Okay, no skeptics invited or even considered for a “green” wedding. Just Doomers. And turning to some hard questions:
- Was it a beautiful day? Was the greenery notable? Why?
- Was it held under a wind turbine or next to a solar farm? If not, why not?
- How did the quests arrive at the wedding? Were the eco-sinful conflicted?
- Is “climate friendly” a real sacrifice or just an excuse to save money and exclude the politically incorrect?
More hard questions could be asked, such as whether dairy products were offered in the coffee or contained in the desert. But that is the small stuff. The big stuff is what to do if a critic of climate exaggeration were to attend or converse. And would such talk by one of the newlyweds in the future be grounds for separation or divorce?
Saving money is a priority as in non-climate weddings. Maybe this can be the excuse for pairing down what many Deep Ecologists would call conspicuous consumption. A tele-wedding, after all, is far more “climate friendly” for the religious.
