The Canary Report Features This Blog, Why Plastic Bags Are Bad News, And What Houghton Mifflin Is Teaching Students About Global Warming... (UPDATED)

Editor's Note - Updated @ 11:45 pm on 12/11/2008:

I just wanted to re-emphasize the advertising policy for this blog. While I, as the author of this blog, may occasionally elect to write about products that I think may be helpful to readers here, this is not meant to invite comments about $118.80 designer bags for sale and the links to purchase them. I'm sorry... but for an anonymous commenter to post about an expensive designer bag (twice) on this post tonight is really missing the point. For details on the ad policy of this blog, please see this recent post:

Saturday, December 6, 2008 Jeanne's Endo Blog: No Scam, No Spam Policy!!



Quoting from the above post: "To clarify... ads on my site are currently all located in the sidebar. If at some point I decide to do product reviews, book reviews, or reviews regarding services my readers might find helpful, I will be sure to label my blog post clearly. At this time, however, ads are only in the sidebar". (Please note: As author of this blog, I may choose to include info about any products that I believe readers here might find helpful. For example, today I posted about a reusable grocery bag. This is an editorial decision for me to make).

Again, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not post commercial links in comment posts. Thank you!

We're covering lots of topics today...

1) This blog was featured in today's post on The Canary Report: Who’s chirping about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity today?:


2) Plastic bags and how they are harmful...



3) Houghton Mifflin textbooks that teach students to question whether global warming is "real" (paraphrase)...



A) Thank you, Susie, for featuring info about this blog today!

B) Next, let's talk about plastic bags. Here is some information from the Facebook group Stop the Manufacturing of Plastic Bags!

Barrels of oil required for US annual plastic bag consumption: 12,000,000

Were you aware that barrels of oil are required to make plastic bags?

People automatically think about cars using petroleum products... but many don't realize the impact of plastic bags on our environment.

To learn more about this issue, please check out the Facebook group Stop the Manufacturing of Plastic Bags!

You may ask what to use instead of paper or plastic bags. (Many of you use reusable bags already).

Check out this handy option for reusable bags:



Ayaka Nangumo replied to my Facebook post about plastic bags as follows (reprinted here with permission):

"In many stores in Japan, if you bring your own bag, you receive a point. You collect the points, and you can use the points to exchange to something or get some discount. I always carry what we call "eco-bag." These bags look much nicer than plastic bags, and they are durable, so I don't have to worry that the bag may get torn while I'm walking back home. :)"

My response to Ayaka was:

"Ayaka,
What a great idea!! Rewarding people for using such bags. That's sort of like here where you pay a deposit for a soda can or bottle and then you get money back when you turn the empty bottle back in. I'd love it if they would do that in the US!! :)
Jeanne"

C) Now, let's move on to the topic of school textbooks and global warming.

Per Friends of the Earth, Houghton Mifflin books are presenting slanted information to students.



See below:

"AP government books published by Houghton Mifflin are teaching students that global warming's existence is up for debate. Below is information from Friends of the Earth":

Tell Houghton Mifflin global warming isn't a matter of debate:

Friends of the Earth has received a copy of American Government, published by mammoth Houghton Mifflin, which is used in AP government classes in high schools nationwide. The latest edition's chapter on "Environmental Policy" contains a discussion of global warming so biased and misleading it would humble a tobacco industry PR man:

"It is a foolish politician who today opposes environmentalism. And that creates a problem, because not all environmental issues are equally deserving of support. Take the case of global warming." (p. 559)

"The earth has become warmer, but is this mostly the result of natural climate changes, or is it heavily influenced by humans putting greenhouse gases into the air?" (p.559)

"On the one hand, a warmer globe will cause sea levels to rise, threatening coastal communities; on the other hand, greater warmth will make it easier and cheaper to grow crops and avoid high heating bills." (p. 559)

"But many other problems are much less clear-cut. Science doesn't know how bad the green-house effect is." (p. 566)

These are not quotes from oil company press releases. These and other such statements are made by the authors of American Government in the same omnipotent, textbook tone with which we are all familiar.

Please join us in writing Houghton Mifflin right now! We will copy your governor to make sure every state is aware of the problem with this textbook.

Tell Houghton Mifflin global warming isn't a matter of debate

I sent a letter to Houghton Mifflin... Will you consider doing the same?

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.