If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s greenwashing. It’s bad enough that the average consumer doesn’t know much about the impact of legitimate green products, and many people are skeptical of green marketing. So when businesses outright lie about the “greenness” of their product, it really burns my bum. The folks at Zaproot this week highlight a couple of over-the-top greenwashing campaigns from two top energy companies. One of them makes me wonder, if “clean coal” doesn’t get a toe-hold, perhaps “sexy coal” can stick. C’mon guys, do you think we’re really all that dumb? These guys really are full of s**t.

Rarely do I receive unsolicited email so compelling that not only do I not hit the “junk” button instantly, but I actually post it here. Such an email arrived this afternoon in the form of a message from Zaproot. It’s a short-form Web video from the “green video network” ViroPOP. I watched a couple of them. The quick-cut format and edgy commentary on environmental subjects makes the videos very watchable. One could easily consume a dozen in a sitting.

But the one that caught my attention was this video featuring a short interview with the director of the new documentary from Mosaic Films titled “King Corn.” Having just started Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” I knew right away that the premise was the scarily too-close-to-home reality that we’re all “corn people.” Watch the video. Check out the trailer. Go see the movie. Read Michael’s book if you so desire. And then think very, very hard about the decisions you make about what you and your family eat.

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