Kids--You Can Save the World by Unplugging Your Cell Phone Charger!!

I had intended to write Part 2 of my Biodiversity "rant" today since I was technically off work, but I still had several work things I really needed to do while at the same time keeping my eye on my 1-year old. Sooo...I didn't really have sufficient time to organize my thoughts and write Part 2, so I'm hoping to be able to work on it tomorrow. I'm sure you're all waiting with bated breath...

So, in the meantime, I wanted to post something short about a website that I have been seeing many TV commercials for lately and have wanted to check out, but kept forgetting. You may have seen one of these commercials--a teenage girl in her bedroom being asked by another teen who appears to be "interviewing" her if she knows that her cell phone charger still uses power even when the phone is connected to it. She claims "I don't have a cell phone" while at the same time you hear what is obviously a cell phone music ringtone; the girl looks around awkwardly and eventually grabs the phone from her pocket and throws it against the wall. You then learn that the commercial is for a government website--http://www.loseyourexcuse.gov.

While it no longer surprises me that the government maintains so many ridiculous websites and wastes money on them, this one seemed to me particularly stupid. From the commercial, obviously it appeared to be a government-created website intended to teach kids and young adults about energy conservation...yikes. While it pains me as someone deeply concerned about environmental issues to say this but EVERYONE in this country is incessantly bombarded with truly disingenuous "save-the-earth" propaganda from multiple sources and this certainly includes school age children (indeed, I have a sneaking suspicion that they might be even more versed in this type of rhetoric). I can't imagine that there are many children in this silly commercial's target audience that haven't already been imprinted with all of the common, largely ceremonial ways to save energy/save the planet/make yourself feel good for being "environmentall conscientious." You know what I'm talking about--turn off the water when you brush your teeth, turn off lights when you aren't in the room, use halogen light bulbs, etc. I would say that it is simply beyond me as to why the government would feel that it's necessary or even effective to spend money on more such propaganda...but nothing the government does surprises me anymore.

I won't give away too much about the site with the hopes that you'll visit yourself. I will say that at first I was a bit confused as to how I managed to mistakenly navigate myself to the Cartoon Network website, until I realized that the weird looking blob in the grass was trying to help me in saving the planet (no, seriously). It does have several sections you can visit but the main message of the website consists of 10 "simple" things that kids can do to save energy...turn off the lights, turn off your computer, unplug your cell phone charger...blah, blah, blah. Most of the website's content seem to consist of eye-catching, fun fluff that, admittedly, is probably quite appealing to a kid but likely doesn't have much of an impact in terms of its message. You can create artwork, or some silly energy-saver badges, download a desktop wallpaper, etc. It's actually a rather neat-looking website but it's just another example of how the government flushes our money down the toilet on silly, completely superficial (it's "cool" to save energy!!) dreck, likely with a good amount of nudging from some particular lobby.

So, I encourage you to visit the site and look around, if for nothing more than amusement...I particularly recommend visiting the "Play" section and giving the "Energy Rescue" game a try. And watch out for those pesky evil cell phones on Level 4.