Apparently, we adults are beyond saving. That's right, our wasteful
ways are so ingrained by now, there's little chance we'll change. We
like our heat in the winter and our A/C in the summer, preferably
blasting at 72 degrees, thank you very much. And we like our cars,
preferably in a jumbo Hummer-Navigator blend. And we like our
electricity. And running water, letting it run while we're brushing our
teeth. The environment? Who cares!
(Let me be specific here: by
"we" I of course don't mean you. Or me. "We" actually refers more to
"them", the nameless Them that's ruining the environment. It's not You.
Or Me. Just so we're clear on that.)
But the children, the
children aren't so formed in their wasteful ways, the children can be
trained, shaped, molded into Environmental Stewards of the Future. At
least, that's what this Canadian ecologist says.
I
speak with tongue in cheek here, but I'm also serious. I agree. I know
that my children's perspective on the environment could be radically
different from mine. They're growing up in a different world, a
different time, when gas costs over $3 a gallon and the effects of
man's footprint upon the earth have become more pronounced. Sure, a lot
of us for instance eat organic food, thus reducing chemical output to the
environment (not to mention to ourselves as we eat it) but if we
purchase organic food from across the world, we're still supporting the
greenhouse gases produced by the transport.
There are lots of changes that, if taken together
and by enough people, can have a huge cumulative effect upon the way we
as humans live in this world and the footprint we leave, but those
changes aren't easy. Most of us reading this post live a pretty
comfortable life, and change isn't easy. But our children, while they're
young, are more open to change. It'll be interesting to see what they
do with their opportunity (now that we, or the Nameless They anyway, have squandered our own).
