Kids say, ‘Stop talking, start planting’

After Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch co-wrote How We Know What We Know About Climate Change: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming a couple years ago, Cherry was flying around the country speaking about the environment and leaving what she called “a huge carbon footprint.” So she decided to make a film—Young Voices on Climate Change–to help spread her message without so much jetting around. (There are exceptions of course—this week she’s in Copenhagen for the climate conference, screening her film eight times.)

The film is about kids who are making a difference in their communities—including Alec Loorz in California, who started a group called Kids vs. Global Warming, and Felix Finkbeiner in Germany, who has planted 500,000 trees as part of his Plant for the Planet group.

Click here to watch the film. Read below to find out from Cherry how kids ‘get’ global warming in a way that adults don’t.

You’ve called your book and film “non-scary.” What does that mean?

They’re not about the horrors of climate change—there’s enough of that out there already. They’re about solutions. It doesn’t take an international climate treaty to implement state and local incentives for people to insulate their houses and lower their energy bills. Kids are getting their schools to lower their energy bills by two-thirds. They get school buses to stop idling—which improves the air quality, reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, uses less gasoline and reduces health care costs because kids aren’t dying from asthma and needing treatment for other respiratory health problems. These are things anyone can do. It’s so obvious, and kids know it. It’s really stupid not to do these things.

What do kids ‘get’ about global warming that grown-ups have a hard time understanding?

Kids get that they’re gong to be toast. All the kids I interviewed say the same thing: “You adults won’t be around in 20 years. We will be here 80 years, and we’re the ones who will bear the cost for your behavior.” It amazes me that these parents–who say they love their kids—are in such denial. That they’re threatening their kids’ health and welfare. Adults really need to get out of denial and do something to ensure that there’s a future for their children. The die’s already cast; there will be parts of the world where there will be terrific hardship already, but we can minimize it if we do something now. That’s what Felix is saying—stop talking, start planting.

The kids in the film seem pretty committed.

The kids get frustrated, because they know they’re fighting for their lives. They don’t let go, and that’s why their voices are so powerful. If you’re doing something stupid, they’re not going to let you get away with it.

How important are kids’ voices in changing family habits?

If kids say, “We’ve got to start recycling,” parents set up recycling. If they tell their parents to take fewer trips to the supermarket, or eat more locally grown food or eat less meat, parents listen. These days, kids have tremendous power over their parents. They can teach their parents.

Click here to read about another filmmaker in Copenhagen this week, who explores ocean acidification.