Mindful Monday: Doom and Gloom, is it working?

I came across an old Blog post today that brought up a topic that is frequently addressed both here in our office, and also with my interns from UNE.  The idea of doom and gloom environmental education.  It was  great commentary on the state of environmental education, and even though it was dated 2 years back, it seems rather timeless. 

Have a read it is short!  Environmental Optimism in an Age of Doom and Gloom

The concerns of the earth and the environment are nothing new.  The earths wavering health has been on the news for as long as I can remember... really since the first earth day... which truly is as long as I can remember (and that is giving this addled brain a whole lot of credit) 

Acid Rain was the big concern in my middle school science class, the greenhouse effect played across the tops of my papers in high school, the depletion of the ozone layer killed the idea of laying out on the quad when I was in college.  It has always been there, but now, there is something new, the overwhelming access to all information, all the time.

We are bombarded with environmental debate, we are reminded that we are headed for crisis daily.  I wonder if young people are just throwing their hands up and saying. OH WELL, we are all going to die anyway and obviously its all so bad we can't fix it, there is no point in trying.

Please don't get me wrong.  It is bad, there are some pretty scary things going on, and so much of it is mind bogglingly big.  But is it past the point of no return?  Do we want this next generation to just say: "the heck with it there is nothing we can do," because that is what they have been told their whole life?

It is a hard balance to strike.  I am in the business of educating kids to love the earth, to want to preserve it and care for it as far into the future as they possibly can.   For the most part that should be an easy sell since it is our home right?  I wonder though, if we are telling our kids that we are so behind in the payments, that they are just going to walk away?

I think in a zealous attempt to scare people into caring we may actually cause the opposite effect.

Let me pan to my grandmother.  In her lifetime, she saw the mainstream of cars, industrialization, cell phones, microwave ovens, computers that went from the size of a building to being hand held...the miracle of flight, and even more impressive, humans landing on the moon.  In no way were any of these things in her vision of the future.  I am sure that she thought that none of it was even possible... much like solving our environmental issues.

I would like to think that if we teach kids to be problem solvers, to be creators, and fill them with hope that they can become inventors, and scientists,  we can solve some of these impossible problems.  Somehow teaching them that being intelligent and having a sense of wonder and love for this place we all live on, could someday save the world as we know it, far more than becoming the next 5 minute wonder from a reality show.  Perhaps we need to encourage our kids to have hope,  and not weigh them down with the reasons that its hopeless.  

Who knows...  maybe we are on the verge of a wonderful era of enlightenment, invention, and problem solving... 

Now that is something to want to be a part of...