Sheryl Crow urges you to use less toilet paper

People who care about protecting the environment are often ridiculed as being tree-hugging hippies who eat granola and wear Birkenstocks. Or, they’re seen as elitist, hypocritical liberals who rant against global warming while living in 4,000-square-foot houses. Sometimes, they’re just dismissed as wackos. Yesterday was Earth Day, and unfortunately, one well-meaning music icon made a ridiculous suggestion that reinforced ...

People who care about protecting the environment are often ridiculed as being tree-hugging hippies who eat granola and wear Birkenstocks. Or, they're seen as elitist, hypocritical liberals who rant against global warming while living in 4,000-square-foot houses. Sometimes, they're just dismissed as wackos.

People who care about protecting the environment are often ridiculed as being tree-hugging hippies who eat granola and wear Birkenstocks. Or, they’re seen as elitist, hypocritical liberals who rant against global warming while living in 4,000-square-foot houses. Sometimes, they’re just dismissed as wackos.

Yesterday was Earth Day, and unfortunately, one well-meaning music icon made a ridiculous suggestion that reinforced all the laughable stereotypes that critics have of environmentalists. Singer Sheryl Crow proposed limits on toilet paper: “only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two or three could be required.”

Maybe she made the comment in jest, but overall it doesn’t help the environmental movement. People don’t have to embrace extreme austerity or sacrifice basic hygiene to make a difference. Just Google “ways to save the environment,” and you’ll find hundreds of entirely reasonable ways to be more earth-friendly (mixed among some of the more outrageous suggestions).

Perhaps Crow, who seems so bent on being green, should take her suggestion to its logical extreme: ditch toilet paper altogether. Poor people all over the world manage without it. Old newspapers, corncobs, leaves, left hands, pails of water, and bidets are all alternatives.

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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