Green is definitely the new black. Plenty of companies, retailers, restaurants and even travel agencies are jumping on board the green wagon, and for once, I’m totally in favor of a fad. Of course, I hope it sticks around and changes from being a fad to simply the way we all live.

That said, some companies really need to learn to walk their talk. The one that’s really been getting to me lately is magazines. For one, magazines aren’t that green; I don’t see the recycled emblem on most of them (do you?), so I’m thinking they’re probably from virgin wood. You know they’re mass produced pulp products, so they themselves really aren’t that earth-friendly.

But then there’s the hypocrisy in the pages. I have seen parenting magazines, teen magazines, and just about every kind of mag there is run a story—or multiple stories—about how important it is to go green, to take care of the earth, to be eco-friendly, blah blah blah.

That’s all well and good—but then you turn the page and there’s an advertisement for a heinous, environmentally destructive product—a cleaner full of chemicals, a shampoo that has been linked to cancer, even baby care products that can cause hormonal imbalances—spread cheerfully across the page, as if it negates the entire article preceding it.

Then there will be pages and pages of “must have” crap that nobody really must have, and most can’t even afford anyway; clothing and makeup and baby toys and CDs and fragrances and body care products and computer games and… the list goes on forever. These aren’t reused things from your local thrift shop getting a new life; they aren’t eco-friendly house cleaners or care products that won’t harm people, pets, or the planet. They’re simple ways to indulge in America’s favorite pastime—spending money on useless wasteful junk and then sending it to pile up in landfills.

Magazines, it’s time for you to do what you claim is so important—go green already. Or don’t. But you can’t have it both ways. If your editorial of the month is going to claim that green skin care is all the rage and is the most important think since self-breast checking to fight cancer (and, yeah, it sort of is, since many of these products are, as mentioned earlier, linked to cancer and other diseases), don’t be encouraging people to buy crap that’s going to simply cause this harm. Don’t go green and keep your toxic sponsors, or urge all of them to green up their acts and then keep them on.