Saving the Planet

Rare is it that my day job finds much relevance in conversation with my son. But since the Conference of Parties (COP) meeting kicked off in Glasgow almost two weeks ago now, I've found myself talking about saving the planet with little Clyde.

It started a few weeks' back when I heard my son washing his hands in the bathroom. He turned on the tap to wet his hands. Then I heard the tap shut off again. Next I heard the soap dish rattle. Then I heard the tap come back on again. Last, I heard it close for its final time. Jubilantly my son emerged from the bathroom, “Mama, that is how we save the polar bears.”

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“That is how we save the polar bears,” he repeated with this 'duh mommy' tone.

“By turning off the water.” A 'duh' tone again.

“Oh I see,” I said.

I thought to myself, “He must be learning this in school.”

And indeed he was.

Over the next few weeks, in between dinner and episodes of David Attenborough's Nature series on Netflix, we've been discussing how to save the polar bears and more.

It started with the simplest question: “Mama, how do we save the planet?”

My first thought was, “Finally a question that I feel slightly confident in answering!” My day-job-woman-in-me answer would have been, “By shutting down all coal-fired thermal power plants, capturing leaking methane in coal mines and gas flaring, and switching to renewables”—all things I am involved in helping governments do on a day-to-day basis.

But we don't all need to be engaging in such things to save the planet. More importantly, these are not the types of actions that a child (let alone an adult) can do :)

So the mommy-in-me reached into the recesses of my childhood mind, to a time when I was a student in the Canadian public school system. It's amazing what comes back to you when you need it.

Almost like reciting the multiplication table, I spouted out,

“You can save the planet by:
Applying 3 Rs (reuse, reduce and recycle);
Turning off the lights when you are not in a room;
Not letting your car idle;
Walking and biking wherever/whenever it is possible, within reason;
Picking up trash when you see it in public;
Cutting the plastic six-pack holders so that birds don't get their beaks caught in them;
Buying only 'net free' tuna;
Bringing recyclable bags to the grocery store;
Composting.”
Afterwards, I couldn't help but wonder if I had just passed on totally outdated information to my son. These practices all made sense to me but what did the new generations think of my tips?

This prompted me to do a quick google search on the “Top 10 Things You Can Teach Your Children To Save the Planet.”

The search was both comforting and revealing in that all my blurted out tips were still relevant but there were also a number of additional ones I had not considered. Below are the consolidated tips from 10 major websites on earth activism for youngsters. An asterix (*) beside one indicates something that would simply have not existed in my childhood and which I found to be totally fascinating:

-Use a reusable water container
-Recycle paper, cans and bottles
-Turn off the lights when not in a room
-Unplug chargers when not in use*
-Turn off the water
-Donate toys and clothes (and buy more second hand stuff yourself)
-Eat plant based meals
-Borrow (library books for instance)
-Refuse plastics at meals or for takeaways*
-Use long-lasting lightbulbs*
-Volunteer for community clean ups
-Choose sustainable food*
-Care for animals and insects
-Use paper on both sides when drawing or writing
-Tree planting
-Repair instead of replace

My takeaway remains that we don't need to be out there decommissioning coal-fired thermal power plants to be making a difference in environmental stewardship. It is really the small, daily things that count. Based on the new list above, I have committed to unplugging the chargers when not in use and being extremely vigilant about plastic bags by putting more recyclable ones in my car to have on hand at all times.

What can you and your kids commit to today?