Environmentalism.

In my Media/Culture/Environment class there is an interesting mix of kids. There are three groups: 1) Journalism majors, 2) Environmental Studies majors, and 3) other majors (i.e. creative writing, psychology). What I find entertaining about this class is its exploration of relevant environmental issues. What's funny about the mix of people is that the person who brings up the most relevant ideas and who is the most intelligent speaker is an eccentric creative writing student. He wears a mix of tight blue jeans and baggy sweatshirts that compliment his skinny frame the way the a sleeping bag complimented Alex's 80 lb. body in Into the Wild. Besides his awkward fashion, he sports traditional wide-brimmed glasses, sits with at least one foot on the edge of his desk chair, and is constantly messing with his thin, oily brown hair. The sun has never seen this kid, neither has facial soap. Yet, through this wild look is a boy who makes a lot of sense on global issues. This further illustrates the understanding I've come to this last week. I've been extremely hard on individuals at work, specific people who I formulate an impression on based on initial conversations and looks. Part of me feels that I need to lighten up, be nice to everyone, find their true value in the world and let it be. Then another side of me wants to pick on every flaw they expose - and nothing is safe, including ethnicity and gender.

Yes, about my class. My first impression of my class was that we'd have a ton of pot-smoking Boulderites literally coming out of the wood work to yell about legal marijuana and Global Warming. What I found instead was a class with a variety of opinions on the World, but like the rest of the world at this level, pretty powerless in the grand scheme of things. My particular observation on environmental issues and media coverage of them is fairly simple. There is a large problem for sure, because media giants do not find an outlet to profit from environmental coverage unless they can slap a big, pretty face on it. Therefore much of the media's coverage misses the general public while it attacks big companies or the larger issues like power plants, giant vehicles - but what does it cover about the pollution caused by war? Anyway, aside from all those obvious things, the media does not speak to the lower level of society in a manner that is engaging enough for them to be active about their daily habits, let alone their community. If the media would put less emphasis on the bigger picture maybe people would feel like they have the power to make a difference.

Perhaps if there wasn't an oligopoly controlling the major media networks across the world - people in a country where we have yet to make any global pact to conserve energy or resources. If at the very least our president doesn't care, why should the president of profitable media networks care enough to change their patterns? I hope we pick a better role model in these elections, someone who takes action against environmental issues and hopefully they learned a couple of lessons from Nixon's administration's efforts to take pride in nature, while it's still here.