The Media's Fallacy

A recent study shows that America is lagging far behind other countries in our understanding of climate change and the priority we place on working to solve it. Even countries with lots more on their plates -- like Iraq -- recognize the vital importance of this issue.

Scary stuff.

Why is this? One answer has to do with the American news media. They are convinced that every story has two sides. Fine. Multiple viewpoints are important to a free media. However, what happens when the two sides do not hold equal legitimacy but are given equal airtime?

As TreeHugger reports, this practice "gives disproportionate publicity to disreputable studies (if coverage were to accurately reflect the current state of science, there'd be hundreds of stories about studies confirming climate change for every one doubting it) and gives the public the impression there's far more debate over whether climate change is occurring or not. A recent study found that many Americans believed there was still a 'lively debate' amongst the scientific community over both whether climate change is caused by humans, and whether the theory of evolution is valid. In reality, of course, there is no such debate over either."

In other words, we are fighting for the environment in the midst of a population that is truly and deeply confused about the nature of the problem. In addition to our own actions, we must remember to help educate those around us.

Check out TreeHugger's article for more information on these studies and conclusions.

Rent-A-Toy

It gets a whole lot harder to be green when you have kids. Even if you surround your children with good examples of sustainable living and commercial-free media, eventually their friends or billboards or something will convince them that the "need" a whole slew of material things. Of course, this is not true. And we adults can do a lot to help fight this mind-set through good parenting and community support.

Yet, there are battles we choose not to fight with children. Perhaps you'd like to satiate their undying desire for, say, a remote control car. Instead of heading out to the mall to buy one, consider the green alternatives:

-Borrow the toy from a friend, neighbor, cousin, etc. Kids lose interest in most toys very quickly. There's almost certainly a forgotten specimen of the toy you're looking for in the bottom of the toy box of someone you know.

-Buy the toy from a thrift store or Goodwill. These type of organizations do good in the community, too. If you support their work, support their retail fundraising.

-Buy the toy used online through eBay, Amazon, etc. This is an excellent way to keep unwanted toys out of the landfill and extend their lives.

-Forgo the carbon footprint of transporting the toy and get it in your community. Craigslist and yard sales are great options. You may even get lucky and find what you're looking for through a Free Cycle program.

-Rent your toys! Programs like Rent-A-Toy work kind of like Netflix, in that you can keep the toys as long as you want and even have the option of buying them if your kid gets really attached. The toys come to you sanitized, in working order, and with pre-paying return packaging.