“Green with Desire”

Photo: Courtesy of the Senator John Heinz History Center

Courtesy of America’s lust for the cheap and easy, the environment is facing slow but certain ruin—or so say most green exhibits. And while this exhibition’s rhetoric falls along those lines, kudos for its presentation: Information is thoughtfully spread out in cute displays. “Green with Desire: Can We Live Sustainably in Our Homes?” revolves around an attention-grabbing, lime-hued simulation of a home, which starts with a wall-panel: “If we still desire status, affordability, convenience [and a host of product-related adjectives]…Can We Live Sustainably in Our Homes?”

It’s a good—and, these days, a prevalent—question, and one would presume the answer can be located inside the exhibition. The nearly life-sized home, filled with matching lime-colored furniture, features a bevy of informational nuggets that question each item for its wastefulness: An average shower uses 20 gallons of water (can its convenience be sacrificed?); kiwis take an 18-day refrigerated journey from Italy to your fridge (is their affordability hurting our energy supply?). Great visuals, but these facts often fall flat; we’ve heard most before.

With so many inherent questions, the exhibit is less didactic than others, but it also becomes unfocused. A Christmas tree in the den notes that 30 million trees are tossed out each year, but, a petroleum-derived fake never decomposes. Which are we to buy? And therein lies the problem: If eco-problems abound, this exhibit would benefit by providing some viable solutions.