The Secret of Good Parenting

The earth is in trouble. And so we who are parents, as we go about our day, looking after our kids, seeing to their needs, have yet another responsibility on our agenda: saving the planet. We can’t be good parents anymore unless we make this a priority. To be a even a somewhat decent parent today is to become involved in the struggle to end global warming.

We can buy all the Baby Einstein videos we want, all the right strollers and baby carriers; we can make sure our kids get into the best schools, have piano lessons and learn chess and Chinese. We can do all that, and yet what does it ultimately mean if, in 20 years, our kids don't have access to clean drinking water? If the earth is beset by famine, devastating storms and the inevitable wars for basic resources? (It's already happening...)

This is no longer a partisan issue, no longer something politicians can dismiss as mumbo-jumbo science. We all know the earth is in danger. And that means our kids are. And their kids. The threat is extinction, scientists say. Bye-bye, babies. Bye-bye humans.

A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, written and reviewed by more than 1,000 scientists from dozens of countries, makes some dire predictions about what our children face in as little as 20 years: Tens of millions will be flooded out of their homes each year as the Earth reels from rising temperatures and seas. Pests will proliferate. Tropical diseases like malaria will spread. Food and water will become scarce. But by 2080, hundreds of millions of people could face starvation.

“Things are happening and happening faster than we expected,” says Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., one of the many co-authors of the new report. North America, it says, “has already experienced substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption from recent climate extremes," such as hurricanes and wildfires. Katrina was no aberration, but a nightmarish preview.

Unless we get moving. Now. The report says that scientists are “confident that many current problems—change in species’ habits and habitats, more acidified oceans, loss of wetlands, bleaching of coral reefs, and increases in allergy-inducing pollen—can be blamed on global warming"; but also that “many—not all—of those effects can be prevented…if within a generation the world slows down its emissions of carbon dioxide and if the level of greenhouse gases sticking around in the atmosphere stabilizes.”

A generation. That means us. The parents. This is our job, as much as it's our job to give our kids breakfast and love.

What we have to do first of all is think. Imagine, as John Lennon said. Believe. There’s a book right now, The Secret, which everybody’s talking about (even Oprah, natch); it’s a popularization of some very esoteric ideas, ideas which have power. The Secret markets itself through applying those ideas to getting rich and getting thin, attracting a relationship.

How about living in a clean, safe, beautiful world?

The Secret says: “Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you deserve it and believe it’s possible for you. And then close your eyes every day for several minutes, and visualize having what you already want, feeling the feelings of already having it. Come out of that and focus on what you’re grateful for already, and really enjoy it. Then go into your day and release it to the Universe and trust that the Universe will figure out how to manifest it.”

If I have any problem with The Secret, it’s that last part: “trust that the Universe will manifest it.” I doubt that George Bush and Co., the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs, Exxon and Halliburton et al are going to stop their warring and war on the environment just because I ask the Universe to make them stop. But maybe. Who knows. It’s a start.

So let’s Imagine:

“I want a clean world for myself and my kid(s). I believe it’s possible. In fact, the world's scientists say it is. They say that if in a generation we stop global warming then we have a chance for planetary health and rejuvenation. I see myself as part of that change. I’m imagining living on a planet with clean air, land and water. I'm imagining the polar bears frolicking on ice floats. I'm seeing happy whales and dolphins. I'm seeing thriving bees and frogs. I’m seeing people all over the world electing governments which are committed to the stewardship of nature. I’m seeing myself acting responsibly in all my decisions for what to buy, wear, eat, and how to travel. I’m seeing myself taking responsibility, and this makes me joyful. I’m seeing my daughter growing up on a healthy, green planet, and this makes me joyful. I’m grateful for the abundance that exists, and I’m seeing it continuing into the future. I’m seeing it spread to all people, all over the world. I'm seeing the end of our dependence on oil, the end to this war and all wars for oil in the Middle East. I'm seeing sane, responsible people seeking out clean energy sources...”

Try it. Like the Jewish mother says in the joke about the dead man and chicken soup, It couldn’t hoit.