As much as the political issue of climate change is visible in the USA, you ain’t seen nothing yet until you visit London and see reference to it at every single turn. Vinyl letters on the sides of delivery vehicles claiming carbon neutrality, goods in stores talking about recycled materials, signs and posters straight out of 1984 touting climate awareness, and menus in restaraunts claiming that your meal is offset by carbon credits and I can go on and on. I don’t think there’s one good we bought from a cup of coffee to a clothing that didn’t have some reference to Eco/carbon/renewable/fair trade/cruelty-free or make some reference to partial profits directed to helping a former British colony in Africa. It was just absurd but they’re absolutely prouder than hell about it.
It’s not just something they do in tourist areas, because we were way out away from the city center and the enviro babble was ever present just about anywhere you looked. There were honestly four signs inside of our hotel room claiming that the furnishings were made of Eco-friendly recycled/recyclable material, the toilet uses 21.2% less water per flush than before, the coffee and tea was fair trade sourced, the heating system was 39.5% green energy, and their constant reminders about the environment never stopped even inside the elevator, down into the lobby, through the breakfast bar, and out to the taxi stand. The drinking fountains in museums are in a partnership with helping Africans get fresh drinking water in their villages. Absolutely pathological.
At first we found it comical and started a little game to find the most references to green energy, eco this-and-that, and carbon neutrality everywhere we went. But in not too long all the in your face Eco-pestering got to the point where I just wanted to scream STFU already and that you’re all actually polluting the planet (or at least London) with materials announcing how carbon neutral you all are. They actually try to make you feel bad for drinking from a paper cup with a plastic lid.
Until you’ve seen it for yourself you don’t really understand that they’re suffering from social mass hysteria. I give it about another five or ten years and the hoi polloi in London will be into some new fad that they’re so hardcore Eco-vegan that they’ll only eat vegetables that have died a natural death and they’ll go about their lives holding their breath as long as they can so that other people far away in third world nations can have a chance to breathe.
If you don’t believe me, go do Google Maps street view of London and see the signs and banners on taxis and buses and bridges and public works.
You are spot-on! Pathological “Eco-pestering” - well said.