It’s the End of the World as We Know It—And I’ve Got Mail

Last year I went through a brief period of panic about the world coming to an end.

Seriously. I think it was the residual memory of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, combined with the imminent collapse of our financial system, mixed in with election mudslinging and scare tactics. The massive California wildfires (whose effects I witnessed firsthand) and 10-foot-deep snow in New Hampshire may also have had something to do with it. And, what the heck, let's add increased outbreaks of Lyme Disease, Triple E, and Avian Flu to the mix.

With the end-of-days obviously approaching (well, in my mind, at least), I decided to go beyond recycling and reusable grocery bags. I did what any left-leaning twenty-something without too much money would do: I put my name on a few conservation group lists. I gave the minimum donation required to join (I think Nature Conservancy was free and Sierra Club was around $25) and sat back contentedly, knowing my staggering contribution would set the world back on a course toward harmony and balance.

Fast-forward six months. My knee-jerk environmentalist stint has brought me one thing: a permanent spot on a nonprofit mailing list.

You name the cause, I get the mailings: clean air, clean water, endangered species protection, the League of Women Voters, anti-coal, anti-clean coal, tightening emissions standards, and so on, and so on, and so on. Usually these groups send something with their donation-request letters to make me feel like I'm truly valued by them: address labels, a poster-sized world map, etc. Of course, what I'm really getting is more and more paper waste. I signed up for these organizations with the ultimate goal of reducing waste and environmental destruction, not creating more garbage.

The mailings also often contain "urgent" surveys that ask me to voice my opinion. But really, I think they're just a mask to make me feel empowered so I'll send a check to the nonprofit group. I don't mean to sound harsh or jaded here, but the surveys often contain questions like, "Do you believe the public should have an active voice in government?" or, "Do you think we are doing enough to preserve our drinking water sources, even though X% of Americans don't have access to clean water?" or, "The Bush Administration moved X number of species off the endangered list, despite decreased populations. Do you think we should do more to save these animals?" You'd have to have a heart of stone to honestly say "no." So what purpose does it serve for me to fill out and return the survey -- especially if I'm not going to send a donation with it?

So I've ended up with two questions. First, as an environmentalist, I wonder: Have my efforts to help the earth truly become counterproductive? And as a researcher, I wonder: Do mailings like these give a bad name to companies like us, who conduct legitimate surveys?