What I’m about to tell you isn’t good news.
Climate change is real.
When I look 20 or 30 years down the road, I see that the planet is headed for environmental disaster if things don’t shift.
There are some people (generally those with an strong financial interest in having “things stay as they are”) who deny it and say Climate Change is a theory, but I think it’s real.
It’s daunting, frightening, and overwhelming to think that, as someone who loves children, we may be passing on a very damaged, disturbed and environmentally unpredictable planet.
Every parent believes, hopes, and prays that the precious little being that they bring into the world will have a good life. That their little one will be healthy and happy, find work that they love, have loving relationships, discover their gifts, and be safe from harm.
Having a baby is a great act of faith. But imagine your little baby as a grown-up 20 or 30 years from now…
We don’t want them living with super-storms (rain or snow), super droughts, intolerable heat waves, unbreathable air and undrinkable water, food shortages, water wars, etc.
It’s too painful to imagine.
Before I wrote this blog, I spent a lot of time reading about how to talk about climate change with young children. Most writers agreed that it’s up there with talking about sex and death.
Talking about climate change to children is very very difficult.
The major message I got from my reading was in essence, “love is stronger than fear.”
When we instill a love of nature and when we parent with compassion, children become empowered. And when they are empowered they know they can impact the world.
We can show them by our actions that there are things we do in our homes and day to day lives that make a difference…
Get children involved in recycling, composting, growing your own food, turning off lights, and electronics, driving less, using public transit, passing items on to other children, eating and buying local and explain to them that this is how we care for our home and our planet…
All of this provides children with an environmental consciousness.
The Mountain Baby store has always been a reflection of my higher ideals when it comes to raising children.
I believe that curbing wasteful consumerism is a means to promoting a positive environmental consciousness for adults and children alike.
So even though I own a retail store, I believe our society’s rampant consumerism needs to be pulled back.
We don’t need so much stuff.
I have actually said to customers who were doing “shopping therapy”, that they have enough.
In fact, at Mountain Baby we discourage customers from purchasing items that won’t really work for them. And we seek out and sell items that will last from child to child to child, preventing more consumption.
I also believe that breastfeeding is one important cure for the planet’s environmental woes. (I am a passionate advocate for breastfeeding and am an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant)
Aside from what is known about breastfeeding’s major and significant impacts on child and maternal physical and psychological health, it is one of the most environmentally friendly things a parent can do.
“Human milk is not skimmed, processed, pasteurized, homogenized, packaged, stored, transported, repackaged, dried, reconstituted, sterilized or wasted. More important to many people nowadays, it is not genetically modified (GM). It requires no fuel for heating, no refrigeration, and is always ready to serve at the right temperature. In short, it is the most environmentally friendly food available.…..Formula feeding is an unnecessary use of the earth’s precious resources and energy supplies. It produces the waste materials from packaging and non-biodegradable plastics which accumulate in landfill sites, or are burned in open fires or in incinerators which produce toxic emissions, especially when incinerators are overburdened by waste”
Formula was originally created as a breastmilk substitute for orphaned and abandoned babies. But through extraordinarily aggressive and deceptive marketing throughout the world, it became “the norm”. I am aware that many mothers have breastfeeding difficulties and that sometimes formula must be used as an option. When making your own personal decision to switch to or supplement with formula, consider the environmental aspects of your decision. Also, there are healthier formula choices.
Imagine… someone asks “why are you still breastfeeding?”… you can say “to help save the planet.”
Aside from breastfeeding, the use of reusable diapers is a great way to help the environment.
One year of disposable diapers for one baby uses 300lbs of wood, 50lbs of petroleum feedstocks (fuel) , 20lbs of chlorine, 286 pounds of plastics. and disposable diapers account for 2.5 % of Canadian landfills.
Through the same aggressive marketing that turned specific formula use into mainstream use, disposables diapers are now the “norm”.
Curbing consumerism, breastfeeding and cloth diapers… these are only 3 examples of the many things we can do individually in our parenting and collectively as citizens to change the direction we are headed in.
And I’m not the only woman advocating change for the sake of our environment and our children.
Last week I attended a sold out presentation by Naomi Klein, a very knowledgeable climate activist and author of her new book “This Changes Everything”.
Her message was very clear.
Something needs to be done now to reverse the momentum of climate change, and if the people in power won’t do it, it is up to us, in our families, communities, nations and through world wide organizations, to insist that it stop.
At the end of her presentation she was asked what parents should do. She said two things.
Pass on what you no longer need or use down to other families, and most importantly, take your children out in nature so that they fall in love with it. They will naturally become environmentalists, because people don’t harm what they love.
So…think about what you and your family are doing and can do to slow climate change.
Get outside with your kids and delight with them in the natural world, whether it’s your backyard, nearby mountain, or neighbourhood park.
Let’s keep our planet healthy for our children so they can grow up to have the wonderful future we want for them.
– Judy
PS: This week we celebrate Earth Day. Check out what’s happening in your community and participate in Earth Day Activities with your kids.
