Well, what i took from the articles about recycling and the Prius and so on, is that the author feels that there's a culture of people who recycle and drive Priuses (Prii?) and who feel that they are "doing their part" to counter the destruction of the environment, even while continuing to buy fully into the consumption model which is a real threat to the ecological balance that sustains us. IOW, you can't join the revolution by buying a product, you have to actually change what you're doing.