So, here’s a snippet from a recent Daily Telegraph article that I just had to pass along to you all. Rumour has it that psychiatrists in the US are warning that extreme environmental awareness may be creating a generation of greeniacs. The survey claims that 7% of Americans now qualify as ‘dark green’, that is, hard-core recyclers and carbon footprint worriers. However, they are unclear as to whether the behaviour qualifies as eco-leadership or borderline obsessive-compulsive.

A report in the New York Times found evidence of all manor of lifestyles that could be considered carborexic. Take Sharon Astyk, for example, a farmer in New York state who is seeking to reduce her energy consumption to 10% of the national average. However, in order to do that, she and her husband grow almost all their own produce, keep chickens and turkeys and spend less than $500 per year on consumer goods, most of which are recycled. Their four children often sleep huddled together to conserve body heat.

Meanwhile, in California where huddling together is not for want of keeping warm, Jay Mutsueda often pees on his lawn to ’save a flush’. (Top tip: If you decide to give that a try and your lawn goes brown, then pee on your roses instead as the nitrogen content makes it a great fertiliser by all accounts!)

The article goes on to quote Elizabeth Carl, a specialist in obsessive-compulsive disorders who said “if you can’t have something in your house that isn’t green or organic…if you’re criticising friends because they’re not living up to your green standards, then that’s a problem.”

So what do you think?