“People start pollution; people can stop it.” ~ William Conrad
As a kid I was terrified of the nuclear fallout from the 3-Mile Island meltdown in Middletown, PA 1979 — 30 years ago on March 28. In 2nd grade I knew all about “partial core meltdown.” If the winds had changed, we would have been covered in radioactive dust. This possibility was explained to us by my teacher who used a cutout of a hairdryer strategically placed on the map to show how the winds could change. Scarred. For. Life.
I just discovered that the kids today are scared of our complete and total environmental destruction. I’m not going to name names, but a kid I know just got a terrible bellyache after hearing about the decimation of the rainforest. When I started writing this post last month, that was my anecdotal evidence for what “kids are scared of.” Sure, I extrapolated a bit. But, as it happens, since then, without looking for it, I’ve happened upon some more evidence. (It helped that Earth Day was last week.)
Someone in my “network” sent this bit around:
Habitat Heroes commissioned a survey that shows:
- 1 in 3 kids ages 6-11 fear that the planet won’t be here when they grow up.
- 95% of the children polled report that their parents are trying to save the environment by recycling, using rechargeable batteries, and conserving water.
- 1 in 4 children are afraid that there is not enough drinking water for everyone on the planet.
- 50% say that hurricanes and tornadoes are the natural disasters that scare them the most.
- 28% say that they fear animals, such as polar bears and penguins will become extinct and disappear from the planet.
- Older girls are the most worried: 67% of girls ages 9-11 versus 60% of boys ages 9-11 worry that the earth won’t be as good a place to live when they are grown up.
The Simpson’s also did a recent episode where Lisa suffered some episodic depression from searching online for what Springfield would be like 50 years from now.
Whew. So, I guess we’ve done our job. Scared the children so they’ll clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere, clean up clean up, everybody do their share (to fix our mess). So, maybe they’re traumatized now. But a little fear is the best motivator. Sure, I never did anything about radioactive fallout except get re-traumatized when I read fiction about post-A-bomb Japan and then watched Hiroshima Mon Amour. But that’s me. I’m lazy. I threw a gum wrapper on the ground yesterday. No. I didn’t. Because litter was our crusade. My generation had the crying Native Indian PSA with Iron Eyes Cody (above). Incidentally, he was actually an Italian-American born Espera de Corti, a fact revealed in the 90s when being authentic and PC was all the rage.
Ah, the PC movement. That got annoying, with everyone insisting on being treated respectfully. I guess we have more annoyances to look forward too soon with the new wave of eco-kids raining down a bunch of rules to make the world cleaner, safer, better. I guess it’s as good a time as any to point out that while it’s bad, there are rays of hope as 10 new amphibian were found in Columbia. Too bad about 30% of that area has already been deforested so you can have books and bookshelves and chairs and coffee tables. Cherish your oak rocker and hardcover book while you can because soon enough it’ll be replaced by a molded plastic chair and a Kindle. And if you hang in there long enough, there’ll just be stories around a campfire told by eco-Americans.
messiestobjects said,
May 2, 2009 at 10:03 am
I think it’s hopeful that children are scared and aware. Remember that Office episode where the drunk lady threw her fast food bag out of the window of her moving vehicle? It was funny because it was shocking, and it was shocking because, well, nobody does that any more, thanks to the crying Italian Indian. I’d actually forgotten that that was pretty normal behavior when I was a kid; I’d see people throw trash onto the side of the road all the time. Now it’s unheard of, and people will yell at you if they see you do that.
Maybe when today’s children grow up, they’ll have forgotten that plastic water bottles and torture ever existed. Perhaps our Grandchildren will gasp at the barbarity of using gasoline for our vehicles, or that people were stupid enough to not bring cloth bags to the grocery store. One can hope.
Gary said,
May 2, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I’ve figured out where all the litter comes from that no one is throwing out of their cars anymore (have you noticed how much litter there is on the side of the roads after the snow melts?). It comes from garbage and recycling trucks. As they drive by the wind blows pieces of stuff out of the trucks and it ends up all over the place. That, and people throwing it out of there cars. That’s our theory anyway. Since we’ve live in our house, once a year we take some bags and take a walk down our road and pick up all the cans and bottles and whatever.
When I was growing up I was really freaked out by nuclear weapons. Now it’s asteroids and Yellowstone park. Oh and religious fanatics. And corporations.
julieluongo said,
May 2, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Also, a lot of the bagged garbage is from people who can’t / won’t pay for garbage pick up. I’ve noticed an increase in garbage bags on the road and in shopping carts since the economy’s gone downhill.
messiestobjects said,
May 3, 2009 at 6:57 am
I’ll never understand why people thought privatization of trash pick-up was a good idea. Public sanitation is the very definition of what a government is there to take care of. I hate hate hate that I have to pay for trash pick up in addition to taxes.
Jennifer said,
May 5, 2009 at 8:32 am
I am completely freaked out by Yellowstone blowing up as well.
Gary said,
May 2, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Oh and Sissy’s butt.
julieluongo said,
May 2, 2009 at 9:53 pm
And that.
Gary said,
May 3, 2009 at 2:15 pm
“I’ll never understand why people thought privatization of trash pick-up was a good idea. Public sanitation is the very definition of what a government is there to take care of. I hate hate hate that I have to pay for trash pick up in addition to taxes.”
I totally agree. When we got our house I was very surprised that we had to choose a company to pick up our garbage. We didn’t really know which to pick.
We also have an annoying issue the past year or so. Waste Management comes to pick up garbage on our street at 4 am. So every Friday morning at this time our boys are awoken by this loud screeching and beeping garbage truck, and they’re terrified by it. It’s going to be worse now that it’s getting warmer and our windows will be open. Plus it wakes us up too. We switched to another company that is actually cheaper and that recycles more types of waste – so at least they wouldn’t be slamming on their breaks to stop at our house (we live on a hill). It’s a little better because they just drive on by, but it still sucks. We asked them not to come at that time but it didn’t do any good. We’re planning on dropping off a letter asking our neighbors to switch. Our company comes around 11am.
julieluongo said,
May 5, 2009 at 9:29 am
Why Yellowstone? You don’t even live near there.
The kids are right to be afraid that there won’t be enough drinking water for everyone. That’s the inevitable consequence of a world without permafrost. If we don’t reduce the CO2 in the air right away, the world is going to be very different from the one we have adapted to, the one that has sustained human life. It’s probably already too late. We have stage-4 cancer, there’s an experimental drug that might work, but we don’t want to pay the price.
Gary said,
May 5, 2009 at 10:06 am
It doesn’t matter if you live near it or not. If it blows up all of north america will be covered in a foot of ash – and the environmental effects of that will be really bad most of the world.
http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm
Gary said,
May 5, 2009 at 10:07 am
OK maybe not all of north america – but that sounded better.
julieluongo said,
May 5, 2009 at 11:21 am
Oh, yeah, that looks bad. Even if the whole of N. America isn’t covered, the bread belt is effectively barren…not to mention all of the other problems. Death. Ash. Clouds.
messiestobjects said,
May 5, 2009 at 11:58 am
The guy on that web page can’t make up his mind. First he says that the liklihood of Yellowstone blowing up in the next few thousand years is exceeding low, then he says that Yellowstone had erupted every 600,000 years pretty [archly] faithfully [/archly] but that it’s now been 640,000 years since the last one, so we’re way overdue. WELL? DAMMIT MAN, WHICH IS IT?!
Jennifer said,
May 6, 2009 at 9:10 am
Yeah, what Gary said.
Erin Williams said,
August 26, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Hey Julie,
I can’t really wax philisophically as well as you and your friends, but I can be an ass and point out that 1979 was actually 30 years ago – not 20.
julieluongo said,
August 28, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Right. Good. Thanks. Done. If it’s assy to make an edit, then I must be the worst ass.