Are you a parent, about to become a parent, or even thinking about having a child in the near future? Good. Be prepared to be scared shitless on a daily, if not more frequent basis, as only being a person responsible for the existence of another human being can make you.
Saying that “you must read” Mary DeMocker’s The Parent’s Guide to Climate Revolution is a little misleading. This is not a book you read cover to cover and take back to the library. DeMocker admits as much:
Or you might adopt the fortune cookie method—keep the book nearby and, whenever you have a few minutes, crack it open and see what you get. Most chapters are short enough to fit into the average bathroom breaks parents with young children allow themselves. [xxvi]
This is not a book with a powerful narrative streak built through successive chapters that concludes with a powerful final passage. We know what the powerful narrative is before we even pick up the book because we are worried that our actions today will create a planet that is unlivable in the future. The very fate of humanity rests in our hands.
The book is laid out into 100 chapters or fortune cookie moments if you will under broad headings like “Raise Empowered Kids” and “Build a Fossil-Free Future.” I would quibble it should be a fossil fuel free future because I still want to see fossils at the Field Museum, but I digress.
What were the pieces that I liked best:
- Get Clear on Why There is Hope—There is hope. We often forget to message this fact when we are discussing the state of the world with regards to climate change, Donald Trump, Nebraska Cornhusker football…you know, things that seem so dauntingly horrible that nothing will matter. Well, our kids pick up on that vibe and it is our duty to make sure that we convey hope.
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- Plant Trees!—Trees are amazing. You will find no bigger advocate of trees as a solution to a lot of problems than me. Planting a tree with your kids is one of those teaching moments that keeps on teaching well after the planting. Through the seasons and as the tree grows your child will be amazed, as they should be, by what the tree they helped plant does.
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- Be the 3.5 Percent—Apparently, non-violent movements become successful when approximately 3.5 percent of the population or more is involved. All right, let’s get 3.5 percent signed up.
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- Let Kids Play with Knives—I would like to amend this to also say let kids play with saws and shovels and hammers and what not. We have created a generation or two of children that have little experience with actually making things from bare components as opposed to pre-selected bits with tidy instructions. See what they can do with some potatoes and onions or a few scrap pieces of wood in the garage.
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- Tame Your Tongue—This one is the hardest for me because in a time when crass political language dominates the only method of communication that seems to break through is to out nasty the nasty. However, we are better served not behaving in such a way and it is my hope that I can follow this advice.
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I could have picked a lot more of the one hundred fortune cookie moments, but you get the idea. You will pick the book up and key in on different moments. That is the purpose of the book.