C'mon Everyone: It's Time for Mass Editorials!

By Megan McArdle
Did anyone else manage to read this without thinking of this?


See web-only content:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/12/cmon-everyone-its-time-for-mass-editorials/31383/

Considering LiveAid's success at ending hunger in Africa, I'm awfully glad newspapers are finally applying this model to global warming.  There's nothing like the sight of fifty-four newspapers performing a synchronized exercise in smug self-congratulation to induce life-altering change.

I am, of course, in favor of not slow-roasting the planet.  But these sort of exercises in mindless collectivism are excruciatingly silly.  Unsurprisingly, the op-ed it produced was puerile and unlikely to be read by anyone who does not already agree with its premise.  If fifty-four newspapers had wanted to make a serious statement about the environment that their readers were sure to pay attention to, they might have stopped printing and distributing their energy intensive product for a day.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/12/cmon-everyone-its-time-for-mass-editorials/31383/