Do not shield children from climate facts
IF ONLY it were that simple. Don’t talk about climate change and it won’t happen.
Don’t worry children with the science, let them lead happy lives ignorant of the truth that the world is changing rapidly and all of mankind, especially younger people, is going to have to deal with the consequences.
Unfortunately, there isn’t time to sugar-coat the facts, to cover young ears when grown-ups talk of rising sea levels, floods, melting ice sheets, mass migration, powerful storms and species extinction.
Nor is there much point. The cat is out of the bag and has long since disappeared in search of higher ground.
Children cannot be shielded from what is happening. In many cases it is they who are leading the way in demanding that the world acknowledge the climate crisis, accept the overwhelming scientific consensus and stop believing conspiracy theories dreamed up by discredited sources.
It is the young who are demanding meaningful action in short order.
It is disturbing that a States member, of all people, should believe that education is a pick ‘n’ mix where, if parents don’t like the tenor of that geography lesson, their children should be allowed to skip it.
Don’t let your children learn from a national curriculum based on the work of thousands of the planet’s pre-eminent minds, let them sit alone in a far-off classroom in blissful ignorance.
No one enjoys the daily news of a world increasingly seeing the effects of environmental crisis.
But there is no genuine solace in clinging to a forlorn false hope that it has all been invented by dark forces of self-interest.
Comfort for children comes instead from feeling that there is something that can be done. That it is not all hopeless.
Teachers can be a major part of that process, informing pupils of best practice around the world so that they can feel empowered and inspired.
Before long, it will be those same pupils who are hopefully providing the solutions and the business and political leadership needed to pull the planet away from the brink.
Children are resilient, innovative, purposeful and open-minded.
The world needs those qualities more than ever.