Are We Even On Your List Of Priorities?

I once had a lovely student named Annick who wrote a manual for grown-ups. It was mostly a colorful how-to book that stacked all the cards in the kids favor. Her book advocated for abolishing bedtimes, and not learning about dead presidents. I recall it was published around Election Day, and we were discussing the importance of voting for a president who would represent the needs of the people. I wrote this quote from JFK on the blackboard:

“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”

I said, “See, here’s a president who loved children.”

Another student raised his hand, “I think you need to read Annick’s book because most grown-ups don’t really listen to children.”

I was teaching second grade.

When I wrote about Severn Suzuki, the 9 year old who started the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other children about environmental issues, it dawned on me that children are our most valuable resource and they deserve input on the fate of their future. ECO raised enough money to send Severn, then 12, to the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. She proceeded to tell a global group of decision-makers how their actions, or inactions would ultimately affect children. Severn silenced the Summit when she asked:

“Are We Even On Your List Of Priorities?”

Let's find a way on this upcoming Election Day, to vote with our parental hearts and figure out this mess for our children: WATCH SEVERN SUZUKI HERE.

Photo: Ted Fink

A Bicycle Built For School

For the first time in 23 years, I have no child attending school. My sadness about this caught me off guard. Believe me, I do not miss those monthly tuition payments, but I do miss how the back-to-school time marks the end of summer and sweet new beginnings. It's the rhythm of parental life.

Melancholy melted away when I saw this school bus over at Inhabitat:

“Attending school everyday has never more eco-friendly and fun! Dutch company De Café Racer developed a pedal-powered school bus that turns going to school into a happy, healthy and cooperative experience. This friendly and bright vehicle can accommodate up to ten kids and an adult driver, and even features a music player to blast all those sweet school bus tunes. The bus also comes equipped with an auxiliary electric motor just in case kids get tired. And if it starts raining, a sailcloth roof can easily be mounted to ensure the kids arrive at school nice and dry.”

Can I just say, I LOVE THIS!

I first uploaded the post onto Econesting’s Facebook page (you all “Like” Econesting’s FB page, right?) and received a comment from FB “Friend” Katja:

“Actually here in the Netherlands there are loads of those things - mostly for adults, there are groupbikes equipped with a bar and fridge, biketrains that you can use in offroad routes trough the woods and more. After all, the distances here are a good deal less then in the USA.”

Hey, do you think we could do this here in the States? I’m game. How cool would it be to grab a few friends and head off-road with that bar and fridge! OK, we could leave the bar and fridge out for the school kids and add helmets. But really, what a fun and ecological idea for areas where climates could accommodate an open-air school bus. Plus, it might wake up a few high schoolers when they hit the pedals at 6 AM.

Credit: Inhabitat via De Cafe Racer

Rachel Carson: The Power Of One

After listening to a Moms Clean Air Force webinar, it struck me that protecting the air our kids breathe can seem so overwhelming that one might feel powerless against the onslaught of information. I am reminded that one individual can, and did, change our nation's pollution history. Rachel Carson used her extensive scientific knowledge, her prolific writing skills, and her love of nature, to make citizens aware of the dangerous chemicals in our air. She not only cleaned up a pollution problem, she led the way for the EPA to clean up the air for the future.

Rachel Carson's groundbreaking book, Silent Spring called for a ban on the chemical DDT, and other harmful pesticides. She provided scientific evidence of the devastating effects these chemicals had on living things - changing the way we viewed pollution forever.

Carson was already a renowned nature author and marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when she heard from a friend on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, about large bird kills that had occurred as the result of DDT sprayings. To no avail, Carson tried to gain the interest of a magazine to publish her findings about the incident. Then she decided to go ahead and tackle writing a book about the issue.

In Carson's meticulous prose, Silent Spring describes how chemicals enter the food chain and accumulate in the fatty tissue of the bodies of humans and animals - causing cancer and genetic damage. Carson's conclusion was that DDT and other pesticides had irrevocably harmed birds and animals. She also presented an alarming statement that the pesticide had contaminated the entire world's food supply. In the most evocative chapter, "A Fable for Tomorrow," depicts an American town where all life "from fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children had been silenced by the insidious effects of DDT."

In the early 1960's, The New Yorker picked up the story. Ater the release of the article, claims by chemical companies and terrified readers attacked Carson's words: "If man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth." ~ American Cyanamid Chemical Company

Much to the chemical company's dismay, and because of Carson's findings, DDT was eventually banned. Many believe Carson was one of the inspirations behind the formation of the EPA: "There is no question that Silent Spring prompted the Federal Government to take action against water and air pollution - as well as against the misuse of chemicals - several years before it otherwise might have moved." ~ from a government natural resources expert after Carson's death

Rachel Carson's message still resonates strong today. Let the legacy of Silent Spring serve as an awareness wake-up call: All living creatures are vulnerable - the littlest ones have the most to lose.

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, what if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?" ~ Rachel Carson

I highly recommend reading Silent Spring. One summer, my family visited the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge in Maine. It is a beautiful vacation spot, and an idyllic environment to view the habitats of coastal creatures. The tidal salt marsh is particularly fun for hands-on exploration. Teaching the powerful message that each and every one of us can clean up the air is a gift worth sharing with our kids.

Main Photo: Chris-Lamprianidis via Deviantart

Mercury Mama's Sweet Dream

Many moons ago, when I was a young pregnant teacher, I taught in a private school that was housed in an old Victorian building. The brick building had many charming features such as fireplaces, ornate moldings and glittering chandeliers in the classrooms. It also had bookcases high up to the ceiling. In my classroom - the Language Arts room, the top shelves held vintage children's books, some rare first edition classics. The Social Studies classroom had ancient yellowing maps that dangled down from the upper shelves. On the tippy top shelf of the Science room, far out of reach from small hands, stood vintage glass beakers with unidentified liquids from years before when the building had been a doctor’s office.

One bright spring day, I poked my 7-month belly into the Science room to lunch with a fellow teacher. A few kids joined us to show off a cool stick they found in the woods by the playground. The stick looked just like a boomerang. They were raring to fling it, and had come to ask for permission. Before an explanation on why it would not be appropriate to set the stick into flight, one of the children impulsively flung it. The stick hit the top shelf broadside, sending the antique beakers and their contents smashing down. There was glass and liquid everywhere.

Within minutes, the other teacher, kids and I were whisked off to the hospital. An administrator had called when he caught wind of what happened. I had never been a patient in a hospital, let alone set foot in a screaming ambulance. The kids needed me not to freak out, so I stayed relatively calm. Until…

In a composed manner, the EMT explained the seriousness of the situation to the children. That was the exact moment my blissful, uneventful pregnancy got derailed. In my 29 year-old panicked pregnant state, I heard one of the doctors say we need to watch her for poisoning:

"Mercury and a motherlode of other chemicals could have been lurking in those beakers."

"MERCURY! Isn’t that the stuff in glass thermometers that you weren’t supposed bite down hard on and break?"

“Yes, there are three kinds…for a pregnant woman, mercury can be especially damaging.”

3 Types Of Mercury

1. Elemental mercury is found in thermometers. The inhalation of fumes from this type of mercury is highly toxic. Mercury can cause significant amounts of neurological damage to babies and children.

2. Mercury salts come from industrial emissions. Breathing or ingesting mercury salts can harm the kidneys.

3. Organic mercury is what leaches into the food chain. Water can become polluted during the manufacturing of certain types of energy production. The mercury can accumulate in shellfish and fish. Organic mercury acts similarly to elemental mercury.

Yikes! Is your heart racing as fast as mine right now? I’m calming myself so I can tell you the rest of the story…

After hours of blood and urine testing and a full ER exam, I was given the green light and told to go home and watch for any unusual symptoms. UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS! With pregnancy dreams hopped up on overdrive, even unprovoked, every possible baby horror was passing through my sleep state. Now ALL of my dreams became punctuated with a capital “M” for MERCURY.

This is the first time I’ve told this story in the 25 years since my daughter was born. We were lucky - there were no “unusual symptoms”. As I am about to celebrate my beautiful, healthy daughter’s birthday (she was born on Mother’s Day weekend), those dreams are coming back to me. Did politicians think when they sided with corporate energy lobbyists to block limits on mercury pollution that we moms wouldn't notice? Let's prove them sorely wrong, and stand up for our kids by protecting the Clean Air Act.

Here's the rub: No matter how old our children become, there are things we can protect them from and things we can't (wayward boomerangs). Mercury spewing into the bodies of pregnant women and children, and accumulating in our food chain, we must stop.

What do I want for my children this Mother's Day? Oh, that's simple: Sweet Clean Air Dreams.

This post is part of the MCAF Blog Carnival: A Mother's Day Gift. We invite you to join the Carnival and tell us what you want to give your kids for Mother's Day.