Green Parenting: Raising Kids' Awareness
By Karyn M. Blass, Cooperative Extension Educator, Rockingham County
Q: I would like to raise my children’s awareness of being “green” or protecting our environment, but it seems so confusing. Are there some simple steps to being a “green” family?
A. Living a “sustainable lifestyle” or “green living” are terms we hear increasingly as the media reports on climate change, dwindling natural resources and the cost of energy. Much has been written about personal responsibility and the impact of making just a few changes in our everyday lives.
As parents, we have the opportunity of instilling values from an early age that are in harmony with conserving the Earth’s resources. The research shows that children before age 11 who participated in wild nature activities such as hiking, fishing, camping or just spending time in the wild, were much more likely to grow up to be environmentally-minded and committed as adults.
Simply by exposing children to the natural world, they develop values that will stay with them through to adulthood and influence their behaviors in relation to the environment. This is the foundation of raising “green” kids. They must develop the appreciation and awareness of the natural world in order for any changes to the “carbon footprint” to be meaningful. Some suggestions:
- Be a role model for your children. Show your enthusiasm for getting outside and doing some fun things as a family such as hiking, fishing, visiting a wildlife refuge, bird-watching, and biking.
- Learn about the natural environment along with your child through local, state and national programs and places. State Parks and National Parks are excellent examples.
- Send your child to a “traditional” summer camp such as 4H, one that includes lots of time in the woods, hikes along nature trails, swimming, identification of plants, trees, and wildlife, and other outdoor activities designed to instill appreciation of the natural world.
We also can help our children be conscious consumers, by helping them be selective in the products they purchase by examining how they were manufactured and how environmentally friendly they are. Even more important is the need to address the question of “how much is enough.” Over-consumption taxed the Earth’s resources beyond its capacity to replenish them.
Similarly, it is good to teach children the difference between a need and a want. Because of the advertising and social pressure to “buy,” many of our children have a hard time delaying gratification. Children learn valuable life lessons when they are required to make choices, save money and work towards goals regarding the things they want, rather than “having it all. A great resource is The New Hampshire Carbon Challenge, which can be found at: http://carbonchallenge.sr.unh.edu/. It provides an opportunity for families to look closely at their energy consumption, and make changes that will decrease carbon dioxide emissions and save money at the same time.
Other ideas for shifting to a more environmentally friendly way of life:
- Break the bottled water habit. Invest in a safe, reusable water bottle, or travel mug. According to the EPA, 90% of domestic water is safe and 40% of bottled water is tap water. The Carbon Conscious Consumer (C3), a national climate campaign, states that “making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 cars for a year.”
- Eat locally. Visit your local farmer’s market or co-op, encourage local grocery stores to buy food from local producers. Often this is posted in stores. Eating locally reduces energy consumption. It is estimated that the average food travels from pasture to plate range from 1,200 to 2,500 miles.
- Take reusable bags to the grocery store whenever possible.
- Change those light bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 75% less energy and last ten times longer than standard incandescent bulbs.
Karyn M. Blass is an Extension Educator in Family and Consumer Resources with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension in Rockingham County.