Green Options

What happens when corporations stop greenwashing…and start being real? MTV wants to find out. The NYC-based network just launched a global marketing push to tackle climate change with TV ads attacking those guilty of greenwashing. All of this is part of their youth-targeted climate change initiative called MTV Switch.

The launch includes not only TV ads, but also a series of five short films. With the

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The New York Times ran an article today about the growing number of urban professionals in their 20s and 30s who leave their city lifestyle behind and move to the country to farm. Aptly, these people are called “first-generation farmers” as if they have arrived from a different culture altogether. In many ways they have abandoned a whole culture for another one, but they have taken with them one urban sensibility that may be the key to their success.

The best way to find out how important the environment is to Korean youths, I thought, is to ask them. Luckily, I happen to know a number of Korean youths: they’re my English students. Ah! A captive audience.

So, I handed out strips of paper to each student and asked them to anonymously mark the answer choice that they agreed with. On the paper were three lines:

• Protecting the environment is very important to me.
• Protecting the environment is a little bit important to me.
• Protecting the environment is not important to me.

As the author of a book series about eco-heroes, I get a lot of fan mail from kids that are fired up to do something to help the environment. Kids can get fired up by many things: seeing a favorite bit of nature developed, a television show on Animal Planet, PBS or Discovery, a personal experience with wildlife. How do you help the next generation move from being inspired to taking action?

I steer my young fans to a fantastic organization called, Roots and Shoots. Formed by renown primatologist and humanitarian, Jane Goodall, Roots and Shoots channels the energy of youth into making positive change for their communities, for the animals and for the planet!

According to a new poll by Youthography, America's youth consider being environmentally friendly a top priority. Sixty-percent believe the government should be doing more to protect the environment, and seventy-five-percent believe the world will be more polluted in twenty-five years. However, the poll also reveals that this concern doesn't always translate into action.

MTV has been trying to change that. With a year long campaign launched last Earth Day

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