When I was young I remember lying awake in bed worrying about the world ending in a nuclear war. The Cold War permeated my psyche and the constant threat of global annihilation seemed so real and close.
Now my beautiful, deep thinking little boy is petrified that the world will end due to climate change (it is a slower end than the burning flesh and disintegrated buildings that gave me nightmares but he cries and trembles at the thought of global warming nonetheless).
This makes me so sad...
He's constantly bombarded with messages on how he has to save water and energy, reduce waste and recycle. He's repeatedly told of the dire consequences of inaction. He hears his Dad and I complaining about the lack of rain and cursing the news telling us that our politicians are dragging their feet on a carbon tax and targets on greenhouse gas emissions.
He internalises all of this, he's only seven years old, he must feel so utterly helpless.
We have made a pact to stay upbeat for him (no more shaking our fists at the news or the weather reports). He's very enthusiastic about the positive steps that we are taking as a family and is happy to be involved in the planning and implementation. We're getting things set up for grey-water recycling (Linus is drafting the architecture for this), putting in rainwater (if it ever rains again) tanks and are planning to get off grid for our power (solar and wind power). We walk and cycle just about everywhere as we choose to live in a place that is close to work, school and all other amenities. We also buy local as much as possible, and we have already put in a whumping great vegetable patch and 7 new fruit trees.
And, being an optimistic seven year old he has decided that he will plan for our future. He is currently obsessed with his plans to settle Antarctica. The map below is just the tip of the iceberg ('scuse the pun)!
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| Linus's map of Antarctica - note the bridge from Perth at the lower right. |
Poor thing! I often think about that when we talk about sustainablility with kids and try to balance the dire messages with positive ones on how we can help. I'm thinking Antarctica would be a bit cold but of course it will be quite nice if there is global warming. I'm lookingforward to having a gondala and a sea side address. Great map!
ReplyDeleteIt will take great restraint to controll fist shaking at the telly especially at this time. Fortunately my cherubs are older and are not shocked at my explietives any more. At least you can yell at the bloggoshere!
I was wathcing Abbot today and it looks like he can sustain his cheery, friendly part of the team persona any longer. And I should imagine that some people may be experiencing some voters remourse.
By help I mean focusing on the positive aspects rather than the scary bits. Otherwise the task seeps to futile and too enourmous!
ReplyDeleteIt seems he's pushing for another election and I think that will go against him actually. People are quite rightly asking what they've got to hide with their figures since they refuse to let Treasury look at them. They are sooooo hypocritical too. Remember that Godwin Grech fellow that was the Lib mole in treasury for years? People are actually saying that the "leak" may have actually come from the liberal party themselves to stop them submitting their figures because they just don't add up. Something stinks a mighty lot here. I hope we get to vote again so people can pull their fingers out!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we're very focussed on the positive with Linus now...you don't realise sometimes how much they pick up from you.
Oh, Anki, my boy get the same way. I think focusing on all you are doing as a family is a great thing to do. We all get overwhelmed with the mess of it all, don't we? When my boy gets upset like this, we focus on our efforts & also talk about just how resilient Earth is. {hugs}
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