Thanksgiving Break

Over Thanksgiving Break, I decided that I wanted to ask my 13 year old brother about his views on climate change and the environment. I know a lot of people who fall on both sides of the issue and have had conversations with them in the past and really am pretty familiar with how that conversation would go. It seemed more interesting to ask a kid about his views, what he knew, where he learned it and what he thought about everything.

First of all, I was very impressed with the way he described everything he had heard about climate change because he started out by explaining that he did not think he had learned enough about the subject to really have a strong opinion. It was impressing because there are many adults who can not recognize that one source of information may not be enough to prove a fact or that the reliability of a source is not always secure. He started out by saying that he saw on the Discovery Channel that global warming is partially, but not mostly man made----he also was a little confused about the difference between global warming and ozone depletion. He was very receptive when I explained to him why ozone depletion is different and that I had learned in school that even though there are natural causes of climate change, since the industrial revolution, people have really increased the speed in the process to an unnaturally high level.

I asked if any of his teachers ever talked about global warming or environmental issues in school. He said no, which I thought was interesting. Is it because the issue is too politicized? Maybe it is not a part of the 8th grade curriculum? It is also entirely possible that he was too busy being sociable in class to remember what the teacher said...

When I asked about ways that people could make changes, I was really impressed. He told me that it is a good thing to recycle and all do our part but that really, its big companies that have the power to influence a lot of people so they should be the ones to make and encourage change. He got this idea from a "go green" campaign on the Disney channel and explained to me, "Think about how many people see those commercials and think about those issues? That's a lot of people. If big companies can make changes and influence people who buy stuff from them, a lot more people will be reached."

I learned from this discussion that A) my brother is a pretty smart kid and B) that people can surprise you in the way that they think about and analyze issues. If an environmental movement is built from people like my brother who understand that there is a lot of noise out there and you have to sift through the information to find the real story, than it could probably be pretty successful. I'm hopeful that there are more people out there who are willing to listen carefully to any debate and evaluate all sides of the situation. I think these are the people who will find that environmental issues are important and big change is necessary.