The tone of Steve Cohen’s article was very pleasant and well-balanced in relation to the piece posted by The Heritage Foundation. While Cohen made a point of explaining both the flaws and positive aspects of Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff film, the Heritage Foundation offers no praise to her efforts.

Though the Heritage Foundation article points out some disturbing information regarding the age and maturity of the population of students viewing this film, is it so evil to have a body of youth thinking about the consequences of personal choice ? Without a doubt, I think that children deserve every right to enjoy simple pleasures like building with Legos and having a carefree childhood, but for each child in the Global North there is another one suffering in the Global South.

I do not condone the use of Annie Leonard’s film to scare children into a depressed state of consumption, but I believe that an education in ecological literacy should become a more important part of the educational process in countries of consumers.