Woodsy Owl, Where Are You?

Remember Woodsy Owl? As a kid growing up in the 1970s, the ever-present “Hoot Hoot, Don’t Pollute” was, if annoying, a potent reminder that individual Americans bear the burden of protecting the environment. Some thirty years after first hearing that irksome bird, his message echoes in my ear whenever a gum wrapper falls out of my car, or I see one of my children toss a piece of trash onto the ground. Just as a 12-step program “ruins” drinking for recovering alcoholics (such as myself), that stupid, glassy-eyed little owl made it impossible for me to ever think about littering or “polluting” again. Damn him.

And whatever happened to The Ecology Movement? I remember plastering my notebooks with Ecology Flag stickers, sifting through cereal boxes for ecology compasses, and signing up to the Ecology Club at school. Somewhere along the way grown-ups took over the movement, changed its name to environmentalism, like, made it all serious, and consequently ruined it for kids.

Where are the stickers, flags and annoying owls now?

The only way that we are going to save our planet is to hold ourselves accountable and to take individual actions to reduce our impact. Governments at almost every level are hamstrung by politics, inertia, funding, and fear. Individuals must win this war. And focusing on the younger generation – just as Woodsy Owl did – is really the only way to do it.