Julie Luongo

“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.