Happy Earth Day: Debunking "The Story of Stuff"

Happy belated Earth Day! Yeah right when schools are teaching children that the Earth is more important than you are then we have a problem.

"Let's have a little more appreciation and reverence for the stuff we have instead of this mindless consumerism"
                     -Annie Leonard

Doesn't sound like a BAD thing does it? Sounds pretty harmless actually and that of course is the way that it gets passed the unsuspecting parent because it appears so harmless, and if you are a really busy parent and don't think about the details then you say well that's a good thing now isn't it and you have just given your approval so when later you try to counter this viewpoint you seem out of touch and old.

Its not only that the Earth is more important but that we as humans are overloading the planet just by existing. This series tries to teach through a scientific model but unfortunately the premises are flawed. Our children only KNOW what we teach them and when they are mislead by people they should be trusting to do the right thing it is very hard to get that opportunity to show  them the right way back.

Lee Doren through Big government has a four part series debunking this widely acclaimed and often used school curriculum.



Classroom Propaganda: Debunking ‘The Story of Stuff’ — Part 1by Lee Doren
Over the last few years, the Left has become increasingly bold with the type of teaching material it brings into classrooms. While biased information was once common. Now, blatantly false information cloaked with good intentions is the norm.

See video clip here 
Last year, I was horrified to learn from The New York Times that Annie Leonard’s video, “The Story of Stuff” was being shown to extremely young students in schools around the country. In case you are unfamiliar with “The Story of Stuff,” imagine compiling every environmental and Marxian economic fallacy into one video with a smiley face. Imagine teaching students that military spending is 50% of the budget (it isn’t), that 4% of our original forests are left in America (our forests are increasing) and we are using too much “stuff” (only if you ignore trivial economic concepts like efficiency and prices, and think our prosperity must be curtailed).
Consequently, I spent about a week combing through the video’s footnotes, and subsequently created the 4-part “Story of Stuff” critique debunking the entire video. Since that time, I have received hundreds of emails telling me that my video critiques were used to get Leonard’s video out of the classroom. I’ve also been on Glenn Beck’s television show and CNN to discuss some of the many problems with Leonard’s work. (more…)

see all four videos

The attempt to bring the children on board is also brought to you by Disney.

SUCKER PUNCH ALERT: Disney Channel Goes Green with ‘Friends for Change’ on Earth Dayby Phelim McAleer But tomorrow, it appears, Disney will be suspending those principles and will engage in political programming. To mark Earth Day the channel is carrying a raft of programs which push the Green/Environmental agenda.



**Programming details after the jump.

 Disney is famously apolitical. In fact, it probably prides itself as an anti-political organization. For years its calling card has been producing family oriented fare that would be welcome in any American household. Indeed it famously declined to distribute Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, which Moore managed to turn into a David v. Goliath story about censorship and corporate greed. This allowed the millionaire filmmaker to find another large corporation to distribute the documentary… whilst getting huge publicity railing against large corporations. Disney managed to survive this potential blow to their non-political reputation and saved their brand.

Why would the company that stood up to Michael Moore be willing to make such a bait and switch? My best guess is that these shows will not appear to be political programming. But this is a fallacy. One of the great victories for environmentalists in recent memory is that they have been able to portray environmentalism as apolitical. And this will be on full display tomorrow on Disney Channel. (more…)

And then you have the Hollywood elite throwing their weight around, and coincidentally, the display of hypocrisy would be laughable if these people wouldn't take themselves so seriously and make their supporters so rabid about this issue.


An Earth Day Message for Green Hollywood by Rich Trzupek


Happy Earth Day folks, or as we like to call it: Guilt Day. And, of all the people who are going to spend today hoping to shame you into remorse for being a dirty, rotten, polluter who is gradually destroying Mother Earth through your brazen use of automobiles and the reckless abandon with which you utilize incandescent light bulbs (aka: light bulbs that actually produce light), is anyone more annoyingly hypocritical than the denizens of Hollywood?

 

Oh sure, some celebs take a break from their jet-set lives to set a good example for us ignorant proles. Leo DiCaprio rides his bike around Manhattan and Cameron Diaz doesn’t “always flush” (way too much information) after visiting the powder room. Whew! The earth can breathe easy, knowing that Diaz isn’t going to complete her deposit until the stench gets so bad that the neighbors complain. Jessica Beal climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to “raise awareness about global warming,” something she could presumably have done without flying halfway around the world and consuming God-only-knows how many resources in order to mount a self-serving expedition. And then there’s Gwyneth Paltrow who encourages people to buy “eco-friendly” clothes from designer Stella McCartney, which sounds like a fine idea until one considers the amount of green needed to purchase McCartney green designs. (more…)

How about that pesky volcano?

You know it was a man-made volcano, George Bush probably has a machine to make volcanoes because you know he has a hurricane machine (Katrina)as well as an earthquake (Haiti, Chile) so he has to have a volcano one as well.

From sign of the times.net I mean no one would really try to report that it could be man-made now would they?

Once again 'experts' on the man-made global warming bandwagon spreading absurdities. The real issue is the massive volume of toxic fluoride and ash that is contaminating drinking water and threatening livestock.

Next we'll be told that humans caused the volcanic eruption...Oh hang on..CNN and NPR already have:

NPR and CNN worry that Global Warming may have caused Iceland's Volcano!!!

This is just too bizarre:


Diana Rehm (NPR): We do wonder whether there's human involvement in all of these eruptions, earthquakes, storms -
Elise Labott (senior State Department producer for CNN): - and how much global warming has a role in it. You know we've seen a lot of wacky weather but that's just a microcosm for what's happening around the world and how much climate change is contributing to earthquakes and volcanic ash - it's a really good question.


How exactly could global warming cause a volcano to go off? 
 

The hypocrisy continues when you realize that President obama and Joe Biden took seperate PLANES today to get to New York City for two different appearences.

So as we see we have a great tribute to the Earth Day celebration, if only we could celebrate the greatness of our country and our Founding Father's in the same way.