Children Are The Future Stewards Of Our Natural Resources — So Long As Their Parents Are Right Now
Are parents talking to their children about natural resources and the issues they face? This is a question that has nagged me for some time. I’m not a parent, but I love kids. More specifically, I love what kids bring to the table: innocent hope and brutal honesty. When it comes to some of the issues I hold most dear, namely the management and consumption of our planet’s natural resources, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Is my sister talking to my 6-year-old nephew about lowering his carbon footprint?” Probably not. So, I did a bit more digging into whether or not parents discuss topics such as water conservation, land degradation, plastic pollution, etc. with their children. And if not, why? The answers to these questions turned out to be a little more complicated — and harder to find — than I anticipated.
A cursory internet search didn’t exactly yield what I was looking for. However, one thing the internet did press upon me was the great importance of kids spending more time outside among our natural resources, specifically in forests and fields as educational settings. As a former high school teacher, this greatly intrigued me. And as a current writer, I exploited what few connections I have to uncover more answers, which lead me to David Sobel. In case you’re not familiar with…
