It is a massive
pleasure to welcome Nicola Davies to
the blog. Nicola studied zoology before
going on to work at the BBC Natural History Unit. Nicola is a multiple award-winning author of
numerous books including poetry, non-fiction and stories. Nicola’s latest book Skrimsli is the second
novel set in the same world as The Song that Sings Us where animals and
humans are able to share their thoughts.
In this far-reaching and thought-provoking blog, Nicola reflects on four
decades of working with children and young people.
I’ve been talking to children about nature for all of my adult life, at
first as an enthusiastic undergraduate visiting primary schools to talk about
conservation, then as a TV presenter and as an author. The first thing I have
to report back from four decades of encounters with young people is that all
children want to know about nature, unless they are in the grip of deep misery
or trauma; even then, many children seem to find news from the natural world,
outside their current difficult experience or hospital window, welcome and
cheering. That’s something that hasn’t changed at all in all those years.
But some things have changed. The biggest is that many children no
longer have direct access to nature. There are fewer gardens and parks and many
children, their parents and even grandparents, have grown up without the
ordinary contact with worms and ladybirds, robins and blue tits, that almost
everyone had when I was a kid. The result is that nature is something remote,
almost fictional. The children I meet today may know about lions and sharks,
but they almost certainly couldn’t name a dandelion or a dunnock.
The other big change is children’s level of anxiety about the
destruction of the natural world and climate change. Some children are being
given good quality information about the environmental crisis, and they have
some understanding of the problems, what caused them and what the potential
solutions are. These children, although gravely concerned about the future, are
not so much anxious as angry at the adults in charge who are jeopardising their
futures. I don’t worry about these well-informed kids; anger is a useful and
appropriate response and it will, when they get to adulthood, mean that they
will start to implement change.
The ones I do worry about, are the ones whose grasp of the facts around
climate change and biodiversity loss rests on a project on endangered animals
that they did in year 4. The dire predictions, gloomy warnings, the news of
forest fires and floods filters down to them from adult media all around. They
have no way of placing all this in a context or really understanding what its
all about. All they know is that it is frightening and their response is either
to shut it all out and not want learn about it, or to be paralysed with
anxiety.
I feel very strongly that we have a duty to children to tell them about
climate change, the biggest problem humans have ever faced, and how it’s going
to influence their lives. But we do not have to present this as the unavoidable
apocalypse, because it isn’t. What we do have to do is to tell them is that
running our society on fossil fuels is the past and the future is all about
changing the way we do almost everything. Not just how we power our homes and
grow our food, but how we distribute wealth, how we treat those driven from
their own lands by conflict and climate chaos. It’s about prioritising people
over profit, community over material wealth, about sharing. It is, in short,
about making the world better in every way and children, with their
innate sense of fairness and right, will grasp this idea very readily.
I know that some people will find this tricky. Some still believe that
speaking about climate change is a political matter. But I trained as a
scientist and I deal in facts. Climate change is a fact and so are the actions
we need to take to combat it.
It’s essential that we adults
talk to children about climate change. I know that’s difficult but here are a
few things that may help
1. Clarity. Clearly
presented factual information explained in a way that’s accessible and
intelligible.
2.
Action. We all know how miserable feeling powerless is, so
share with children ways in which they can be part of the solution. This might
include protest. In fact it probably should for the sake of children’s mental
health.
3.
Time. The battle against climate change won’t be won
overnight. It’s a long job so it’s worth telling children how no European
cathedral was built inside 300 years. Part
of being a human today is being a good ancestor
4.
Allies. Children need
to know that natural ecosystems like forests, kelp beds, sea grass meadows and
soil are our allies, soaking up large amounts of Co2.
5.
Comfort. As always nature can be a comfort; not the nature on
TV is all its beautifully filmed ,slow-motion gorgeousness, but the dandelion
in the pavement crack, the blackbird singing from the rooftop. The biggest
favour you can do your children and yourself is to reconnect with the simple
nature outside your door- learn its names, notice its beauty and learn from its
resilience and fearlessness.
A big thank you to Nicola Davies for the blog and to Firefly Press and Graeme Williams for the opportunity.
Print Page
Group Home
Blog Home
Group Blogs
RSS
