A NZ mum speaks out on climate change

Preparing kids for climate change

RACHEL STEWART

Manawatu Standard

4 March, 2014

As a nation that flatly refuses to confront our climate change obligations, or openly talk about the looming black cloud, I wonder how our children are faring.

There's no doubt in my mind that while most parents adopt a largely unconscious choice not to "go there", the kids, by osmosis, are picking up signals.

When I was growing up the biggest fear I had to deal with was probably a visiting moustachioed aunt bearing down on me for a big cuddle.

Oh, and nuclear war.

The former seemed much scarier than the latter, which is logical given that humans, and especially kids, appear emotionally equipped to deal with imminent threats rather than abstract ones.

Now, as 99 per cent of the world's scientists concur on climate change, and many of those believe we've reached a tipping point, one wonders exactly when the abstract will become the imminent.

I have absolutely no doubt politicians will do zilch until enough people make enough noise. But that's not happening until the resources run out.

So we wait patiently for the mother of all weather events to hit our shores, affecting millions.

The final straw. It's not nice to think about but it's probably the way it will have to play out.

That's my own glass half empty view but, trust me, being Pollyanna-ish about the whole situation won't stop it happening. Better to be prepared.

But how do we tell the children we love about the reality of the climate future that confronts them?

Most of us are busy with heads down and bums up getting on with earning a living to feed the little critters and keep a roof over their heads.

Climate change is the last thing on anyone's mind most of the time.

But it is always there, lurking in the back of our minds, like a slow-growing tumour that threatens to confirm, at any given moment, its latent growth spurt via double vision and bad headaches.

I know that capitulating to the hopelessness is not a terribly viable option. Having at least some hope on the horizon is a much more comfortable human condition than having none. And because we want our kids to be safe from harm, but don't want to unnecessarily scare them either, we'll continue hedging our bets and long for that miracle that surely must be coming to save us all.

So, do we give children false hope with the promise of new technologies that will save us all from extinction?

Certainly a new wave of children's books on the subject depict a colourful world where we're all working in harmony, diligently and heroically, to solve a really big puzzle.

It's all jolly hockey sticks and cucumber sandwiches.

Of course, that's a preferable approach for small children than what we, as adults, know is clearly worldwide climate chaos starting to unfold all around us.

For older kids my guess is that they learn about the climate stuff pretty much how they learn about sex - with minimal parental input. Difficult subject matter for all concerned.

Sure, teach them to reduce, reuse, recycle. Change those light bulbs to energy-efficient ones, compost, grow veges, drive a hybrid, and go solar. None of that is going to hurt and it will help to take their minds, and ours, off the elephant in the room, too.

Try to explain New Zealand's governmental cheerleading for the continuing use of fossil fuels, deep-sea oil exploration, and fracking to them as best you can.

Have a crack at enlightening them on the reasons why we humans do all of this. Money. Not for the many, but for a few.

Maybe your parental approach is you believe that it's best left to schools to educate your children on climate change. That presupposes that the science is consistent and robust, and it may well be that it's too kind or too sugar-coated for your own taste. Or perhaps you need to educate yourself better and face this thing head-on.

Only then can you be truly effective in helping your children understand the future they are hurtling towards.

My great-niece and nephews, all under 6, live in town yet have chooks for fresh eggs, and a vege garden to tend.

My own recipe is to introduce them to my animals. My butch dog - which hunts rabbits, lives with a cat, and couldn't care less if a rehabbed sparrow perches on her back - also adores them.

They are completely habituated to my falconry and what that means in terms of catching prey for the bird to eat, and sometimes for the table.

Short of us all rising up in unison to force politicians to act - and that's unlikely and, I believe, too late anyway - this is probably the best we can do.

Because if we parents and caregivers aren't facing up to the task, preferring to bury our heads in the sand, then we're no better than the climate change deniers.

Our silence will not protect us or them.