Ears of babes

It's one of those odd 'cock-up... or something more significant?' moments when dealing with our 'major' media and their 'free' blogs.

How do you tell your children about climate change?

A thoughtful piece, which I thought deserved a thoughtful answer.

However, for some reason, comments were/are 'closed' almost as soon as it went up. I don't really pretend to understand the technical reasons, but as a policy it's hard to think why. By my way of thinking, once up stuff should stay up, and can be added to ad infinitum thereafter. This message, on such an innocuous piece, seems downright weird.

Anyway, as the question was posed I felt an answer was/is appropriate, if for no other audience than myself... or you if you are still reading.

The word honesty is used in the piece, and I think that is core. I am luckier than the author in that I do not 'know' as much as she obviously does, so when it comes to consequences I might be less prone to kick off by trying to terrify them.

Thing is, they are getting bombarded from all quarters, and as one of their life guides, along with the missus I do see the need to be there to help wherever possible; a bit of context here, an amplification there... and even the odd 'well, do you believe everything everyone says no matter what?'.

I'm not too sure what they are getting served up as part of the curriculum at school, but thought being shown 'The Inconvenient Truth', even with a side order booklet of 'what it should mean is..' was not the best I'd have hoped for. Especially as many teachers might not be at the cutting edge of knowledge on the issue which, as one who is middling at best is, if we're honest... 'we don't know, but best to get our heads around it now as it might well be very important, though not as important as getting re-elected, generating funds or boosting ratings'.

I certainly was not giving 'em green books at age six, especially any that try to justify their cover price and (often very worthy) contents with a bit of preamble as to why all this stuff might be best to get on board with... NOW!!!!!

There's also a slight danger they might buy too much into the token Twee-Green notions of 'more and more cars on the roads. Maybe too many planes too. Maybe trains as well, but only a little bit' but, as noted, that does allow one to segue into the notion that maybe it's more '...because we had too many lights on too'. After 11 years I am still switching off after them mind.

Thing is, reading such as the Guardian and books like this made/makes me feel really worried, too. And yes, I still feel miserable thinking about it now. Maybe I should, but it's no way to live life to the max. Trust me. I am often in a blue funk bunker mode just trying to figure out what to do, because doing causes stuff, and stuff causes...

So I sure as hell will be doing all I can to ensure my kids learn to live theirs fully whilst also having as good a grounding as I can give them to use only what they need, and to waste as little as possible. In as positive, rewarding and entertaining a way as I can concoct.

Too late for me, but I don't think worry and misery are the best motivators around.