Coinciding with Earth Day, a group of teenagers launched a new program called GreenMyParents, which seeks to “help young people teach their peers and parents how to work together to help the economy, earn money at home, and save the planet through simple, everyday actions.” Looking for ways to help their families save money while protecting the environment are laudable goals, but I have some concerns. I don’t want to insult these kids by assuming that they are just puppets of any other organization, but they should be aware of the fact that many will seek to use their organization to advance their agenda.
These kids should be commended for designing a program that relies on persuasion and free choice. All too often, environmental groups have sought to circumvent public opinion and free choice by appealing to governmental force. Mandates on personal behavior and restrictions on liberty are not how people should seek to affect change in a democratic society. I hope they will stay focused on their model of persuasion and stay away from politicized issues like cap-and-trade.
While wading into the issue of personal choices, I also hope they will stop and consider some of the trade-offs adults have to make. It is easy to condemn their parents for wasteful behavior while they are still too young to have to be responsible for things like safeguarding a family. For instance, in a write-up by the New York Times, it was suggested that the group would advise “washing in cold water, walking or biking to school/work and kicking the bottled-water habit,” as ways to save money and help the environment. Walking or biking to school might save both money and reduce pollution, but it also exposes children to greater risk of violence or kidnapping. These are the types of things that responsible adults have to consider.
It is no secret that the environmental movement has been c0-opted by disaffected leftists who, despite that end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, still seek a means to overthrow capitalism. While this is not characteristic of all environmental groups or the people involved with them, such views are prevalent enough that it is likely such individuals will attempt to also co-opt GreenMyParents.
A group which reaches out to children provides those with an agenda an irresistible opportunity to subvert normal political debate by controlling the information received by the next generation. They understand that children are both more impressionable and less informed than those who have been around longer, and so they can circumvent pesky battles over public opinion – regarding things like personal liberty, economic freedom, and how to weigh environmental concerns in typical cost-benefit analyses of everyday choices – by controlling the information that reaches children. The founders of GreenMyParents should be extra careful not to let their organization be used in this fashion.