A recent UK ad is under fire for scaring children about climate change. It depicts a father reading a story to his child, which raises issues of rising waters, drought, epidemics and so on.
While I tend to walk a fine green line with my own three kids – to empower them to make smart choices, while trying not to scare them with the urgency – I’m not convinced it’s working. While I don’t want to terrify my children, or anyone else, I’m feeling increasingly agitated by what seems to be dangerously slow progress.
With the Copenhagen Climate Conference taking place in December, the world’s eyes will be on our politicians. Can we count on them to create a global mandate – and distinct goals for each country – that goes far enough? As Bill McKibbon has pointed out, we must get greenhouse gas emissions down below 350 ppm. We’re currently at 390 and gaining. We have no time to waste.
We’re beyond worrying about who we’re scaring with this reality. Of course, we don’t want people paralyzed with fear, but we do want the world to recognize that we simply don’t have many more tomorrows in which to get this right. Our leaders can’t let us down. Climate change is THE critical issue of our time, encompassing health, economy, civil rights, tourism, trade.
We should all be scared… Very scared.