A new relationship with animals, nature and each other.

This Week in Green – Oct. 30, 2010

No Marvin Gardens?

We’ll end the week with something a little less dark. Like Black Friday.

Black Friday, the year’s most popular discount shopping event usually held the day after Thanksgiving, is creeping into October and early November. It kicks off this weekend at some of the large retail stores.

It’s a naked ploy by retailers to get ahead of the curve and get a piece of consumers’ dwindling resources. But if shop you must, and you’re looking for an idea for Christmas, this game, which is a play off of Monopoly, caught our eye.

It’s called Earthopoly, and the company that developed the game – Late for the Sky – pitches it as “a game that celebrates Earth, one turn at a time. Players become the caretakers of wondrous locations around the planet, then increase their property value by collecting carbon credits and trading them in for clean air. It’s all fun and games until someone gets sent to the dump. So choose your token and advance to Go Green.”

The game itself is billed as Earth friendly. As in all the paper is recyclable. The ink is vegetable-oil based. The shrink wrap is fully biodegradable. And on and on.

All things considered, there are worse things to buy. Like cement from Halliburton.