Listening to Our Future Leaders

Listening to Our Future Leaders

On October 21st, Canadians head to school auditoriums across the country to tick their choices in the ballot box. Most kids in those schools will stay in class, waiting for their turn. Over the past months, they may have watched the news with mom and dad. They’ve seen rainforests burn in Brazil or whales wash up with bellies full of plastic. They’ve seen girls close to them in age cross the Atlantic in a zero-emissions sailboat and hit headlines around the world.  

They feel the urgency. Compared to 1948, average temperatures have risen by 1.7 degrees Celsius. Reporting on the recent devastation brought on by Hurricane Dorian, Bernard Ferguson from The New York Times writes:

“Climate scientists have warned us of such disasters…hurricanes will develop and grow stronger more quickly and carry more rain as they move.”

Canada is not immune. We may not have seen a hurricane outside our windows, but those brilliant colours that signal fall have been arriving later and later. Canadian Minister of the Environment, Catherine McKenna, warns us that more is to come:

“Along with higher and increased rainfall, we will see rising sea levels. Warmer waters and ocean acidification are expected to become increasingly evident over the next century.”

Climate Change: Real Financial & Personal Costs

The costs are ones our children feel, even if not directly. In 2013, an ice storm cost Toronto $106 million. Thunderstorms have caused widespread flooding, bringing Toronto’s downtown core to a standstill. Blair Feltmate, head of Intact Center on Climate Adaption, tells us that “flooding is the most expensive cost in Canada to extreme weather. In the past decade, costs of catastrophic insurable events have ballooned to $1.8 billion on average per year.”

In Montreal, 70 people died of heat-related causes in July alone. Feel-like temperatures were 40 degrees Celsius with high humidity. British Columbia has been losing record amounts of forests to fires. Coastal communities have seen sea levels rise with their own eyes. 

Our kids may be tuned into all that news or they may not be. But regardless, they turn to you to help them become good citizens. They watch the decisions you make, listen to the issues you talk about, and learn from your habits. You may have discussed politics with them and asked their thoughts about each candidate. You may have encouraged them to think critically, so when it’s their turn to vote, they know what to look for on the issues that matter to them most. 

Raising Future Sustainable Leaders with GSGF

At Green Schools Green Future, we know that investing in a green future means investing in our kids. That means cultivating empathy and compassion through education, so students prioritize healthy living for both themselves and those in need. Green education means asking students to debate around key issues in environmental policy to whet their appetites for a career in politics or policy-making. It means teaching them the potential of new technologies to overcome food and water crises, helping them find possible solutions.

Our students need a range of skills to lead intelligently, compassionately and effectively in the future. If you’re a parent of a child still in school, teach them their voice matters. Ask them how they feel when they watch the news and acknowledge what they say. Let them know that they enact change in this world and to never give up hope.