This is the last Media Scope for this school year. There are no remaining work placements for Transition Year students available in The Irish Times. However, the students below have won £20 book tokens.

Emilie Jan Forst, Maynooth Post-Primary, Co Kildare

Every day in the paper I read at least one article concerning our trash and its disposal. What bothers me is that we don't address where the garbage comes from. Contrary to popular belief, landfills don't just appear; they are the result of us wanting our daily accumulation of waste out of sight and out of mind. Yet, we deny that we are actually creating such massive mountains of refuse from our daily individual garbage hills. Likewise, it is our responsibility personally to reduce waste, and as a society to make environmental living a norm. For instance, I bring canvas bags when I shop. This might appear to be trivial, but it saves an incredible amount of plastic bags from feeding already large landfills. Yet when I use a canvas bag, people look at it as an oddity, or a novelty, but never as a pragmatic solution to reduce environmental degradation. As long as we feel that problems are beyond us, we forfeit our ability to make a difference. Therefore we must accept that we cause daily damage to the earth, and begin to see environmental problems from the viewpoint of personal activism. Just imagine the impact of even a small portion of the people who have read this article using a canvas bag . . .

St John O Donnabhain, Colaiste Pobail Osrai, Cill Chainnaigh

What is it about the Irish psyche that, whenever there is a disaster, natural or otherwise, around the world, we are one of the largest per-capita contributors, yet we do not seem to be able to accept these same people coming here to escape this suffering.

I believe the answer is that Irish people, in general, don't want to deal with these people at first hand. The attitude seems to be: "We'll help solve the problem - just don't bring it too close."

This kind of attitude is worrying, for it indicates Irish people are more racist than many of us would like to admit. What would happen if Ireland had to be evacuated, and Britain closed its borders, saying, "We don't want Paddies here." People would be outraged, and rightly so. Where's the difference?

Maybe it would be fitting to paraphrase Atticus Finch, from To Kill a Mockingbird. He says you must get into someone's skin and walk around in it in order to understand why they do certain things. I hope the racists among us will do this, and see the pointlessness and cruelty of their actions.

Media Scope is finished for the school year, but we still welcome your comments. Write by post to Newspaper in the Classroom, The Irish Times, 11-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or fax to (01) 679 2789. Or you can use the Internet and e-mail us at mediapage@irishtimes.ie

media scope is a weekly media studies page for use in schools.

media scope is edited by Harry Browne.