Environmentalism Reduced to Product Marketing

These online games that are supposed to raise environmental awareness are really just marketing schemes. They are used to get people to consume or to try to convince naysayers that environmentalism can be fun. What a joke. And, honestly, what a waste. They are a waste of time, money, space, and intellect. Well, they aren't fun. And most of the time the games lead to dead links or don't work.

From what I can tell, there are three different kinds of games. The one's backed by corporations to try to improve their "green" reputation, the one's that are trying to sell products, and, saddest of all perhaps, the ones put out by environmentally-active organizations that are trying to show us a good time.

Starbucks launched a game in 2007 called Planet Green. Don't bother going to its webpage because it's dead. Apparently, the game didn't help to improve the coffee giant's image, so they let it die, just like all the trees that are used for their cups and cup sleeves. How about finding ways to safely reuse the millions of tons of plastic that are polluting our earth instead of overpaying some designer to come up with a new "Reduce Reuse and Recycle" campaign to throw up in your store window?

I'm curious how a company has the nerve to call itself The Environment Team when they are pushing consumerism. The games on this site are infuriatingly simple and, in the end, pointless. Echo, the Eco-Friendly Dolphin is a great example of a stupid game. Don't waste your time, unless you want to spend ten minutes playing a boring game that leads to a slew of product advertisements. At the end of the game I was really hoping to see some valuable links to the issues that the game was promoting. Instead of a link to sites about whaling or, even more appropriate, to the documentary The Cove, which deals directly with dolphin slaughtering, I found an oversimplified explanation of why dolphins are in danger and seven different ads leading to "green" products like this Coffee Sleeve that Doubles as a Wallet. Are you messing with me, Environment Team? I'll tell you how to stop the waste of coffee sleeves: STOP MAKING THEM–IN ANY FORM.

There are true environmentalists who may think that video games are the way into people's lives, but video games are so incredibly advanced these days that these simple amateurish games are more of a nuisance than an attraction. It's admirable that Ben and Jerry's wanted to make environmentalism fun, but their Lick Global Warming game is not only boring, but the game is a dead-end. When you've finally figured out how to use the up-and-down arrows to guide your car to its destination, you come to a very unsatisfactory "Campaign Unavailable" message. Someone was paid to make this game. I shudder to think that grant money is possibly being spent on developing these useless games. And If I'm going to a site run by people who supposedly know how to take action to save this planet, I would like to see them be able to take action to maintain their website, which is my only connection to their cause.

When sites are left for dead, they become internet waste. Clearly not as damaging as landfill or cosmic debris, but definitely a sign that something was worth giving up on. The feeling I get from these games is that they are junk. And isn't junk in our environment what we are trying to reduce?