Shizelen

"Dark green" will turn into carborexicsThe fear of recycling materials can become an obsession.

Tom Leonard, The Daily Telegraph, 10/23/2008
Translation: Gazeta

American psychiatrists fear that increased awareness of environmental problems may lead to the emergence of a generation of carborexics – people suffering from panic aversion to products in the production of which carbon is released.

According to a new report, 7% of Americans belong to the so-called dark green – people who fanatically care about the environment, reuse materials that have already served their time and constantly worry about the carbon content in the atmosphere. At the same time, it is still unclear whether such behavior is determined by environmental motives or whether we are talking about a disorder bordering on neurosis.

As the report published in The New York Times shows, today there are all signs of the emergence of the so-called carborexic lifestyle. These include, for example, the use of vegetable oil as fuel for cars and lawns as latrines, helping to save water.

Sharon Estick, a farmer from New York State, is trying to reduce her family's electricity consumption to 10% of the national average. She and her husband grow almost everything for themselves, raise chickens and turkeys and spend less than 500 pounds a year on necessary goods, most of which they buy second-hand.

Their four children often sleep together, which helps to keep the body warm. According to Estik, some neighbors consider them to suffer from energy anorexia. However, the woman adds, after energy prices increased, the attitude towards her family softened.

As the Californian Jay Matsuda told The New York Times, sometimes he relieves himself on the lawn near his own house to save on draining water in the toilet.

All of this is alarming to some mental health professionals. "If you can't have something non–ecological or non-organic in the house, if you criticize friends for their lifestyle not meeting your "green" standards, then you have a problem," says Elizabeth Karl, an expert on obsessive-compulsive disorders.

From the point of view of David Zucker, a long-term development specialist at the Porter Novelli PR company, excessive enthusiasm for ecology borders on fanaticism. "These people are striving for a zero–consumption lifestyle," he concluded.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru27.10.2008