Doing Their Share to Save the Planet: Children and the Environmental Crisis

What do American children see as the biggest threat to their future? Not superpowers and corporate greed, but rather litterbugs and water wasters.

The fear is a reasonable one, yet it is also one that is forced on children from every side. They are targeted for messages about the environmental crisis by schools, television programs, T-shirts, “green” comics on milk cartons and cereal boxes. Through interviewing children, and conducting a fascinating analysis of their drawings and the reactions of kids to Captain Planet, a popular television cartoon for kids, Donna Lee King makes it clear that children are taking the warnings to heart and rapidly becoming part of a new generation of environmentalists.

King offers a unique view of the world’s environmental problems through the eyes of our children—and goes on to ask who seeks to influence the kids and why. She argues that the children, like their parents, are being distracted from the deeper causes of the environmental crisis and from the effort it will take to solve it. This book will also help parents understand children’s hopes and fears for the future.