I don’t normally watch Fox News as it is too upsetting and degrading; however, I couldn’t help but share my indignation over a video fellow Green Options Editor Alex Felsinger of Planetsave shared with me. This Fox News video titled “Cold Chicken” begins by bashing PETA‘s protest over KFC (while the reporters eat fried chicken), then moves on to targeting green kids.
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Children who are generally concerned about our planet’s health and climate change do not deserve to be denigrated by Fox’s idiot Greg Gutfeld, who would actually punish his kids for being green!
Alright, let’s talk about the most pint sized environmentalists. And what they’re doing to cause strife.
Yes eco kids–these are basically environmentally conscious kids who are guilting their parents into becoming, you know recycling more to be more green, and I have read in places that they actually try to fine their parents if they don’t, if they are not green enough. This is the amazing thing–I wish I had kids so I could punish them — But I don’t have kids, so I gotta wait. Anyway, here’s the thing–so these kids, if these kids really believe that you’re bad, then arguably you could say that all consumption is bad, therefore they shouldn’t have iPods; they shouldn’t have phones, ’cause all those things have a byproduct of consumption, of waste. So take, yea consumerism, so take everything away from these kids and see what it’s truly like to green.
Punish your kids for caring about the environment, what kind of parental advice is that? This guy obviously doesn’t understand guidance evident by the absurdity of the comment. As a green mom, I don’t punish my child for accidentally throwing recycling in the trash can; I ask her to put it in the proper place. I also don’t recall the green movement saying that all consumption is bad, but uncontrollable consumption of plastic, toxic crap is definitely bad for the environment. As far as kids guilting their parents into being green, I am not sure what guilt trips have to do with honest discussions and suggestions about greening family life. Kids are powerful vehicles of change. Just look at how tobacco education programs have successfully educated children, who then express their concerns to their parents about their health. Children care about their families; children care about the earth. Back to the Fox News transcript…
Yes smarty pants.
And there’s a new story out this morning, which just blew me away. I hope we can talk about this. That, there’s some environmental movement now a foot to keep parents from having more than two children.
Yes
Why is this?
They believe that–
It’s polluting the environment–
Yeah, it’s a, it’s a brain washing of a culture that the environment is more, that the environment is more important than humanity. In order to save humanity, you have to prevent people from having kids. This is the most backward way of thinking imaginable. The only people that shouldn’t are the people who believe in this crud.
Yeah, they want to institute a one child policy, but the point is of course that they believe we’re only replacing ourselves. Husband and wife should have only two kids. Three is wasteful because–
It’s like every kid you have is like driving an extra Hummer.
The funny thing about it is, these people believe that if you don’t have kids, you’re preventing people from polluting. Well, that’s like me saying I’m not going to have kids because I don’t want them top be liberal. I have said that.
We’ve talked about family size and the environment before on Eco Child’s Play, and I do believe this is an important decision any family makes that is both personal and has a global impact. Many of our writers on ECP have families larger than two children, and I don’t think that makes them environmental hypocrites. As far as Hummers go, I think that each child’s carbon footprint over their lifetime in the western world is much greater than a Hummer. Sorry Gutfeld, your analogy sucks!
Thank goodness Gutfeld doesn’t have kids! His arguments are so flawed, and I would hate to see how emotionally damaged his children would be from all the punishment. As families, we should be concerned about our consumption and how we can lessen our impact on the earth by making green lifestyle choices, including family size. Family discussions about the environment are not a form of harassment, and children do have their parents’ and grandparents’ generations to blame for our current climate crisis.
You can watch the full video on Ecorazzi of Fox belittling green kids.
This is absolutely infuriating! Even for Fox news.
I hate it when people insist you got 100% green or “shut up” like this. There is nothing wrong with expressing concern and changing one thing a day/week/month or even year. Everything we do has an impact and I’d rather see see a child be mindful of their carbon footprint than throw their trash on the ground in an effort to be as non-green as possible.
Have you ever watched the show? The whole thing is full of sarcasm and humor. Pretty much any quote from the show looks horrible when taken out of context.
I actually watched that show he said that in, and I knew it would be picked up and people would be horrified … but it was funny – not serious.
A movement to stop anyone from having more than two kids — I thought that was called “Zero Population Growth” and was greatly energized in the late 1970’s.
Anyway, there is some substance to the argument that more people means more pollution. However, there are many conflicting factors driving decisions to have or not have children, and in the U.S. and the developed world, birth rates are below replacement, so the issue would seem moot. Meanwhile, to suggest that those in the developing nations restrict births — although tremendous effort has already been put into that vein — makes developed nations seem like — dare I say it — they don’t want to “share.”
I watch Fox… we are very Republican and generally pretty conservative. We are also VERY environmental. A contradiction, I know. I don’t think this was put out to be negative, ie, having eco conscious kids is bad. I think it was more a haha look how extreme this is because there is a lot of extremist mentality in environmentalism. I would NEVER allow my children to be in control in my house or to set rules. I do encourage my children to come up with new ideas and take responsibility. There is a huge difference between raising eco conscious children and allowing children to run the ship.
We have a large family. I don’t believe that large families are a bad thing, and I certainly don’t agree that population control is or should ever be considered as part of the environmental movement.
There are factors way beyond carbon footprints that go into family size. I can guarantee that my family of 7 has a smaller carbon footprint than most ‘average’ families of 4. I think eco families should have more children because they are raising more stewards of the earth. Wouldn’t that have a greater impact than anything? The U.S. is not at replacement birth rates, so I think population control is crazy, oh, and communist.
Jamie, that’s why we love you…you have a unique family and show that environmentalism and liberalism do not need to be mutually tied together.
Brandie, no, I have never watched the show other than this clip, and yes, I could tell they were joking, but they had a base of belief in which to start the joking. Would Gutfeld actually punish his kids for going green, I believe yes if they tried to fine him like in the example he mentioned or they pushed him on the issue. To brush this off as just a joke is not ok with me, because I don’t find humor in offensive jokes, and yes, this is offensive to me. I had a history teacher in high school that asked, does it make you a racist to laugh at a racist joke? I would answer yes.
Sonja, I thought the same thing about the population bomb and Ehrlich’s ideas. Not a new idea at all. We discussed this in my environmental science courses in college the early 90s, and it wasn’t even a new idea then!
After a good undeserved spanking from the media’s for being a pest, just remember they’re still our little ECO KIDS and it’s going to be their world. It’s our mess that they have been left to clean up and the world’s ECO KIDS are trying to do it the best way they know how as kids, probably not too differently then what you would have done at their age if you had been giving a similar challenge; so give the ECO KIDS a pat on the back instead of the smack, it just may go a long way in solving two problems. Thank goodness for the world’s ECO KIDS.