When I was a child .........?

Question

What environmental lessons would you like to teach your great great grandchildren-to-be?

Answer 1

I would say, leave the same things to ur great-great-grand children what we are leaving to you.

Answer 2

I have not got kids yet, but maybe one day Bella ;) I would like to tell them this:

1. "I thought about you when I planted all these trees, this edible forest garden and the permanent Permaculture gardens that you living off now"

2. "I imagined you and your great, great, granchildren to be, enjoying them, not having to repeat all the effort, the drudgery  that we did. I imagined you and your great, great grandchildren and all the generations after them, growing up with trees, having a deep respect for trees and nature"

3. "If I can only teach you, my children to be and every generation after you to do one thing it would be to plant trees native to your area, to plant fruit trees and to plant trees for coppicing for you and every generation after"

Answer 3

RESPECT MOTHER NATURE IN ALL WAYS

Answer 4

that each and every person has an impact on this planet, so we should do our best to preserve it and leave as little of a footprint as possible.

Answer 5

Great great? It's all I can do to think about the lessons I want to teach my grandson.

My yard, it appears, is as good a classroom as any.  Not a large yard by any standard, nor a small one, it holds mysteries galore for a 3 year old.  Right now we're just focusing on modeling behavior and explaining my expectations.  We do not squish the spider, it is good. Because they eat bugs.  Because the birds in grandma's yard eat the spiders.

But ultimately, the great lesson for him and his children would be to respect nature, and learn from it.  Right now we're doing that in baby steps.  One day I expect he'll know things he doesn't realize he knows, and it will affect his live in ways I'll never be able to realize, nor will he, not immediately.

The life lessons I learned from my grandparents were subtle but still reverberate today.

Great question.

Answer 6

Dunno yet i am to young to think about that....

Answer 7

don't littter!

Answer 8

Not sure, I will be there that far into the future.

Answer 9

Your environment is everything you come into contact with, and the way you treat it is how it will treat you, so be kind, be careful, and help it stay healthy.

Answer 10

The best things in life are free.

Answer 11

Hello children,

I'm sorry I can't be there to tell you all this in person. You may not understand everything I'm going to say, you'll have many questions and I wish I could be there to sit you on my knees and explain all the mysteries of the Universe. All I have to leave you is some tidbits of wisdom and truisms I learned during my life.

1. It is better to learn from the mistakes of others than your own mistakes. Find someone who makes history come alive for you and delve into the successes and failures of the past.

2. Religion is not "the word of God", religion literally means "to search for the source", we call the source God; they simply anthropomorphize a concept. But just because organized religioin creates Gods in our image that is no reason not to believe in God.  God is an analogy for purpose. If you live your life everyday with a sense of knowing that all things have a purpose, even you, rather than wasting your life searching for a purpose, you will never need to fall victim to the people who wish to control you by offering you an afterlife. Cherish what you have, not what "might be".

3. There are a multitude of things that can kill you in an instant. Fear none of them. Rather learn everything there is to know about those things you are most afraid of and your relationship to them. Only by understanding what you fear, what makes you sad, happy, angry ... emotional ... can you truly take ownership for your own emotions and become an informed, prepared and fully functional human being.

4. Waste not, want not. Not a truism I thought up, but it's a good one. Keep it in mind. Do not fall victim to merchandising: their "want" of your money does not translate to your "need" to have their product. Never buy junk. Save your money and buy quality; if you can't afford quality or only need it for a little while ... rent it.

5. A big house full of cheap knicknacks, tender cuts of meat and a garage full of so much junk you can't fit the two cars and toys that make you and your children fat and lazy is not a lifestyle or a status symbol, it is a waste of your life pursuing the false image that media tells you your life should be; decide for yourself.

6. People only look different. When you get to know them you'll find there aren't that many differences at all. They all have similar hopes and dreams. Even if their dreams and goals seem to conflict with yours, be patient, people have a lot of pain that you can't see that makes them strike out in anger; eventually you'll see eye-to-eye.

7. Stay active. Your whole body was designed to move, not just your thumbs.

8. Being "an adult" isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Pray your children grow old gracefully, but never "grow up!".

9. Don't believe it when people kiss your butt by telling you that mankind is the smartest creature on the planet; they're probably about to ask you for money.  An octopus can solve complex problems and even change it's skin texture and colour merely by thinking about it; can you?  See, you're not so smart after all!

10. Wear sunblock ... *LOL* it's a video I saw once, it lists more stuff ... sadly the world you live in probably requires that you take that statement much more seriously than we had to "when I was a child".

Good luck, good life, goodbye.

Signed,

Great, great grandpa

Answer 12

1.corn used to be a food for people (because by then all corns would be used for biofuels)

2. polar bears, penguins, lions and leopards are not mythical animals

3. we attended rock concerts on 7 July 2007 to learn how to save our environment

but i wish ii would not have to tell all these things to my great-great grandchildren.

Answer 13

If they survive, I think they will already have learned to respect nature and the planet. The way things are now, with global warming and pollution, we'll be lucky if there ARE any future generations that far ahead. Al Gore said it all along, as did many others, but it's only now, when we're on the brink of extinction, that some people are FINALLY listening.

I think our great great grandchildren will look back at our society and blindness about conservation...and think we're all idiots!

Answer 14

We lived on a planet called Earth. It was filled with all types of plants and animals.  It was beautiful. Unfortunately, the human race destroyed the planet until nothing could live there. It is really sad because it could have been prevented.

Answer 15

I'm assuming you mean if we ever get the chance to see our distant offspring, it will be more of telling them a story "an environmental calamity of the past". No? Because it is this generation (20 to 40 year old) that needs to figure it, i.e.: (energy, food,climate change,population,etc.) out before c**p, i.e.:(pop. 9+billion/c.c. reg. unnatural storms/ 200+brl oil/poisoned earth and expensive food/etc.) hits the fan.

Answer 16

save the earth before its late

Answer 17

"we are a part of nature, not above it. remember this in every action you take."

and

"if every person lived like me, how would that affect the planet?"

My grand kids would know this, its this generation I'm trying to teach.

Answer 18

Recycle

Answer 19

can we make that great etc grand nieces?

they will already know them, or they would not be there.

oh, ok; 'there's no such thing as a free lunch'.

Answer 20

Some nice answers so far. Is this what you're looking for?  I’m going to take a different tack.

It pains me to speak it, but we must face the truth if we are to find our way through this. Actions speak louder than words. Our lesson will be with them all the days of their lives.  I live with this every day when I look into the eyes of my children.  My spouse is the optimist; she says they will find their way, just as every generation has done before. I’m not so sure we’ll pull it out this time.  

"If you are reading this, it means you have survived somehow. Don't do what we did. But more than that burn into your collective mind the lesson you have been forced to learn by having your future stolen by someone in the past. When the megalomaniacs rear their ugly head again, challenge them. Start and end the war before it's too late."

Did the caretakers lose the war; or did they refuse to fight?

Answer 21

When I was a child, actually a young teenager, we would wade in this creek.  The bed of the creek was FILLED with a very rare fresh water clam.

Then people "discovered" how beautiful Snohomish, WA was.  A school, and entire subdivisions were build where the dairy farm use to be.

All of those houses, schools, and churches planted perfect lawns.  All of the run-off from those perfect lawns and shrubs traveled down hill to this creekbed, where the rare fresh water clams use to be.  In just five short years, after the massive building explosion, the clams were entirely gone.

That's one of the reasons we bought the farm up North, close to the Canadian border.  It's the reason we planted nine THOUSAND native trees along the banks of the two creeks that run through the property, and around the pond.  It is also the reason we have continued to purchase every piece of property that touches an edge of the farm that comes up for sale.

We want to continue to be able to protect the wildlife, and the streams, so that YOUR grandchildren will someday have a place to wade, and discover things like freshwater clams.

This is why we farm the land, but use no chemicals, and we put up nest boxes for the wood ducks, and nesting platforms for the blue herons.

We have done this, and cared for the land, so that you would have a safe place to live, grow your food, and raise YOUR family.

Now take me back to our home.  It makes me too sad to see a place that was once bursting with life so sterile and dead.  By the time we get home, it will be getting on toward evening.  Time for the blue heron to fly in for his twighlight fishing on our pond.  Don't you just love that prehistoric dinosour squak herons have?  How many people do you supose have been lucky enough in their life to hear that noise?

(My conversations with my great, great grandchildren would be something like that)

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 22

In our small rural community, (Northern California) a bunch of us ("us" being: parents, would be teachers, and other community members interested in the future of quality rural development) got together and started a public "charter school"... Kinder garden through grade 8...  . Charter schools differ from ordinary public schools, here in the USA, because they define an educational  direction for the school. The one we defined for our school is the first of it's kind in our area, it is : environmental studies,connected to personal ethics, and community spirit.

The school teaches children in a hands on way, about animal husbandry, gardening, our connection to the earth, sustainable agriculture, and connects this with high standards of personal responsibility, and service to the community at large.

The kids learn to milk goats, grow tomatoes, feed chickens... they do experiments with things like  pasture management, weather watching, water testing, and other cool stuff. The kids there that I talk to, love school... need I say more?

Get together in your community, with like minded people and create an education opportunity like this one for your kids! They will love it too.