Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines by Paul Fleischman (review)

“Environmental news may turn out to eclipse all the wars and doings in your history textbooks.” So says author Fleischman, who attempts here to offer teen readers a host of strategies for looking critically at environmental news and sorting reliable information from junk science in the media. This is certainly a laudable goal and it’s approached with a lively voice, but the shaky organization, with broad ideas loosely herded together under vaguely delineated headings (Noticing, Perception, Defense Mechanisms, Systems, Attitudes, and Eyes Abroad and Ahead) and involving a multitude of varied references and hat tips, results in a pastiche of concepts rather than a workable system for source evaluation. That Fleischman facilely garbs environmental players in black and white hats (scientists, good; Republicans, bad) is actually less problematic than the thin evidence he offers to illuminate his position. Only three “backstory” sections examine an issue in any depth—the 1970s oil embargo, depletion of the ozone layer, and the Kyoto Protocol—and these rare flashes of specificity will leave readers wishing for more of the same. Perhaps most useful is the volume’s back matter, which, besides source notes and an index, offers an extensive bibliography of print and non print media, suggested resources arranged by topic, and an excellent glossary of terms that often carry domain-specific meaning (e.g., mitigation, Cornucopians). This may be worth a skim to generate ideas for a research project, but as a guide to critical media consumption, it leaves much to be desired.