SUMMER 2009

Chicken soup for the Earth

F or Ted Wells, a fourth-grade teacher at The Park School (Massachusetts), “Allowing children to do something about issues that worry them helps them gain control over their world, and gives them reassurance that they can make a difference.”

He likes to quote one of his students who said that “Earth is like a human. When the human gets a fever, we get chicken soup and get to watch TV. Then we get better. When Earth gets a fever, it has no TV or chicken soup.”

Part of the Earth’s fever, the students noticed, was generated by the piles of sales catalogs clogging mailboxes. So they organized a friendly “Catalog Canceling Challenge” among grades three, four, and five. After 30 days, the 145 children had opted-out of 4,125 catalogs, which, if stacked, would be 31 feet tall. According to Wells, “Everyone was stunned by their efforts.”

Wells calculated that, if you assumed one canceled catalog represents four future catalogs not showing up, then the students saved 50 trees, 50 thousand gallons of water (it takes three gallons to make one catalog), and prevented the release of 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide — or the annual emissions equivalent of about two cars.

The simple program has caught on. After it was featured on the Today Show, a number of other schools and some Girl Scout troops have joined the project. Over 1,000 children have canceled 17,000 catalogs as of December 2008 — a lot of chicken soup for the Earth. Wells invites everyone to join the program by visiting: http://www.parkschool.org/blogs/ted_wells/.