Beyond the climate crisis gloom and doom: The tipping point of hope

This four-part series, Beyond the Climate Crisis Gloom, explores why as we adults navigate the harsh realities of the climate crisis and do the hard work of creating change, we must also build an environment of hope and opportunity for ourselves and our children that sets our sights on a brighter future.

The first instalment focused on how we can provide positive messages that our children need. The second zeroed in on how kids instinctively get what is good for the planet and how climate action can be fun and uplifting. This third looked at how we can help today’s kids grow up with the ability to apply kindness and science to repair the planet.

This final instalment focuses on how small groups of passionate people can effect change surprisingly quickly — so much so, that it is possible we are nearing the tipping point of hope, finally poised to offset the negativism of the last decade.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” This celebrated quote from cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead has served as inspiration to countless environmental activists for decades. Let’s “kid-icize” these words of wisdom for today’s children — “You and your friends can help fix the world… Just pick one thing you want to change and then work on it as hard as you work on bugging your parents for more screen time!”

And how about we reframe for our young children the commonly asked question of “What if we have already passed the climate change tipping point?” into “What if the power of you kids and we parents is nearing the tipping point for saving the planet?” Infuse them with hope — not anxiety. Trigger them to act — not submerge themselves in a sea of gloom and doom.

Not to detract from Greta Thunberg and others who are doing a remarkable job of building a global wave of pressure based on fire-and-brimstone to influence world leaders to effect change, but we can balance that approach with messaging about innovation, hope and opportunity.

We adults likely all remember when McDonald’s bowed to pressure from children in 1990 and stopped using its iconic, clamshell-like Styrofoam packages into which they slid billions (yes, billions) of greasy burgers and “chicken” nuggets annually. Run that kid ship forward 30 years to today, when more children than ever are savvy about environmental issues and the impact that their choices have on the planet. So why not nurture that innate planetary compass and help them cultivate opportunity-oriented mindsets? Open their eyes to the possibility of being key parts of the saving-the-planet tipping point.

Even small things make a difference, like asking, “Hey, kids, why do we need tissue boxes to include those little plastic thingies to make sure each tissue comes out neatly? Maybe you could help change that.” Or asking bigger questions like, “Hey, kids, why do we need plastic packaging at all when once upon a time, it didn’t exist and the world managed just fine with containers that were recyclable or reusable?” Or “Why are we still using gas and diesel for transportation when cleaner electric versions of almost everything are now available? Maybe you can help change that. Maybe we can help change that.”

Exchange ideas with your kids and give them examples, like the McDonald’s Styrofoam story, that illustrate how fast change can happen when a concerned group of passionate people rise above the tide to take action. Like how old-growth forests were saved in B.C.’s Clayoquot Sound in 1993 by people willing to blockade logging operations and who later helped to found the group ForestEthics, now Stand.earth. Like how lobby groups all around the world have convinced governments within a few short years to enable Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandates that will see the rapid decline of the sale of fossil fuel-burning vehicles over the next decade.

“Generation Distress” could well become “Generation Let’s Clean up the Mess” as they become focused on contributing to the creation of policies, plans, technology, food, and energy that result in regenerative outcomes of hope for a future healthy planet. However, they cannot captain this ship through the storm without parental guidance. We adults need to continue to set the example by doing the hard work of repairing the planet while also building in our children a sense of hope and opportunity that enables them to set their sights on a brighter horizon, rising above the gloom at last.

Paul Shore is an award-winning author and technology consultant who has worked in the worlds of software, semiconductors, health care and the Olympic Games. His current writing project is a graphic novel series for children in collaboration with co-author Deborah Katz and illustrator Prashant Miranda — Planet Hero Kids: I Can Hear Your Heart Beep.