From the “Happy Days” blog (a New York Times blog “about the search for contentment in its many forms — economic, emotional, physical, spiritual — and the stories of those striving to come to terms with the lives they lead” (ahem) is this post titled, “The Age of Eco-Angst.” An excerpt:

My grandson’s third birthday is at hand, and I’m looking at a toy racing car I won’t be giving him. Painted a bright yellow, this nifty little toy seemed just right for him when I paid a buck for it at a big box store. But before I could give it to him, I learned that cheap toys made in China, like this one, can have lead in their paint — particularly reds and yellows — to make them more shiny.
My pleasure at picturing his delight at the toy car melted into something between disgust and outrage. That nifty toy sits on my desk months after I bought it.
Call it eco-angst, the moment a new bit of unpleasant ecological information about some product or other plunges us into a moment (or more) of despair at the planet’s condition and the fragility of our place on it.

I can’t really argue that the phenomenon doesn’t exist — as I, too, threw away a bunch of “Thomas the Tank Engine” toys that were on the recall list a year or so ago. Of course, a lot of eco-angst is generated by baseless eco-hype — recall the furor over the presence of the chemical BPA in plastic baby bottles that Mark Hemingway covered over in the Corner:

I’ve seen some estimates that over a billion people have had exposure to BPA and there isn’t proof of anything. So why the big scare? I assume trial lawyers are involved in the fear mongering. That’s a given.
But then I saw that last year two reporters from the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel won a George Polk Award — a major journalism honor — for reporting on the “dangers” of BPA. It’s another reminder that there are some perverse incentives for journalists. Dramatic reports on threats to public safety win awards. Reporting that those same threats are overblown and likely egged on by those hoping to make millions of off class-action lawsuits is applauded by no one.