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The Blue State Coffee Press

October 2nd, 2007

Should children be recruited as eco-warriors?

Posted by Bridie at 10:24 am

Sunday’s WSJ featured an article about environmental groups targeting children to spread the word about reducing energy consumption. Kids pressure their parents to make changes at home — often very good changes (solar panels for the roof; cleaning the coils on the back of the fridge to make it more efficient).
The article references the movie “An Arctic Tale” as an example of this trend — it’s educational, but also propagandistic. There’s that kid at the end of the movie who tells young viewers: “If your mom and dad buy a hybrid car, you’ll make it easier for polar bears to get around.”
Obviously I love that children are being educated about how they can make a positive impact on the environment…and it’s great that they’re spurring their families to become more responsible. But on the other hand, I was struck by the story of a first-grader who’s terrified of the dark but feels he has to sacrifice his night light, and wondered…are we giving these kids too much anxiety, or a one-sided understanding of the issues? Are they being used in a way that’s sometimes unfair?
What do you think? We’d like to hear.

Full article here.

Posted in General news

2 Responses to “Should children be recruited as eco-warriors?”

Diane writes:
Posted October 2nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm | Link
How about a solar sun jar instead of a nightlight?
Alex Payson writes:
Posted October 3rd, 2007 at 8:09 am | Link
My completely biased two cents?
Today’s children will be in charge in 20-40 years. If we are not educating them as much as possible today on the changes we need to make to our lifestyles then we stand no chance in our efforts to combat global warming.

If they can convince their parents great- but more importantly if they remember these lessons when they are adults it will make our conversion to a “greener” world that much easier.

And quite frankly, our children should be scared- I know I am.

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