Undulating reports on the environmental advantages and disadvantages of everything from organic foods to hybrid cars could be to blame. “Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green,” advises the June cover story from Wired. Yet after several years of leaving readers with unsettled evidence and plenty of displaced anxiety, the uncertain effectiveness of even the most earnest eco-efforts seems to have undermined individuals’ motivation.

While new data and updated understandings should be reported, the capricious conclusions making headlines often have little to do with new information. When that happens, readers are bound to get frustrated, which is unfortunate, because there are many pressing environmental problems (from pollution to deforestation) in the world today. Journalists should stick to those and do their best avoid the flimflammery of “green consumerism” (itself, an oxymoron) unless there is a truly useful discovery or breakthrough to report. Perhaps that would assuage some of the eco-anxiety out there, and allow readers to think about more meaningful ways to help their planet.

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