CurrentMom

How To Talk to Your Kids About Climate Change

Guest post by Chuck McCutcheon

With Earth Day here, and summertime following after that, more attention will be paid to the problem of climate change. But even for adults, it can be a confusing topic. Too many Americans still don't believe it exists, and even among those who do, there's a tendency to think that a period of colder-than-usual weather means that the effects of climate change are exaggerated.

As someone who has written a critically acclaimed book for students aged 9 and older, and who has given lectures at schools around the country, I'd like to offer a few helpful areas to emphasize, based on the questions that I most often get asked.

Climate change is real, and people are causing it. There is no debate about this among international scientists. If you or anyone you know doubts this, please look at Grist.org's handy guide. But if your children are confused, you can simply tell them that science is not just like math; it doesn't always produces a single, universally agreed-on answer.

Global warming is a part – arguably the major part – of climate change. Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the earth over several years or decades. Climate change refers to global warming as well as other changes in climate, like more common and intense extreme weather, and a rise in sea levels.

Thanks

Therapy Tuesday
Photo by: dcjohn

Recently on Facebook, I noticed that friends of mine had posts that started with "Day 15: I'm grateful for..." For the month of November, they diligently have been posting about what they are thankful for. Perhaps its practice for the Day of Thanks or just an exercise in being more mindful.

Obviously, we don't need Thanksgiving to spend a day (or several hours) being thankful. But it serves as a cue or a reminder that there is importance in not only feeling grateful, but sharing and identifying what it is you are thankful for. Some days, this can be a tall order.

Is there a point to gratitude? Does it do something for us? According to Joel and Michelle Levey's article in the Huffington Post, there is something to be said for gratitude. Other research points to fewer physical ailments and better emotional health when the practice of gratitude is applied.

How does one even practice gratitude? Before going "all in" and changing your habits drastically, there are some "baby steps" you can try and you can then see how practicing being thankful impacts your everyday life.

--Make the Decision: feeling gratitude begins with your attitude.

--Start Slowly: Say "Thanks."

--Practice Random Acts of Kindness (Examples might be: Opening the door or paying for someones toll/coffee.)

--Challenge Yourself: Keep a journal (once a week, daily--you decide the frequency) or post to Facebook. Try to stick with this practice regularly for a set period of time. (Ex: Once a day for the month of December)

--Start with Yourself: Be good to yourself. Start by breathing for a few minutes or giving yourself a small amount of alone time.

How do you say thanks? What are you thankful for this holiday season?

Commodifying the Pale Blue Dot

Image via Wikipedia

Technology Tuesday

Pale blue dot. I have loved that phrase as a description of Earth since I first came across it years ago. It refers to an iconic image of earth we've all seen and Carl Sagan used it as the title for one of his books (probably referring to the image to the right, as opposed to th more famous blue marble image). (Here's the wikipedia description of that book and the wikipedia description of the photo.)

Al Reinert wrote up a short history and discussion of the blue marble image over at The Atlantic recently.

It was the first photograph taken of the whole round Earth and the only one ever snapped by a human being. You can't see the Earth as a globe unless you get at least twenty thousand miles away from it, and only 24 humans ever went that far into outer space. They were the three-man crews of the nine Apollo missions that traveled to the moon between 1968 and 1972, six of which landed there successfully (three men went twice). But only the last three saw a full Earth. In order to see our planet as a fully illuminated globe you need to pass through a point between it and the sun, which is a narrower window than you might think if you're traveling at 20,000 miles an hour.

There's an ongoing dispute among the astronauts on the mission as to who actually took the picture. Rienert points out that it doesn't really matter:

Both men are certain they snapped The Blue Marble Shot and can't believe the other won't admit it. They can get rather snarky about it and that's a shame. They each deserve to be remembered better for their uncontested moments. Schmitt discovered volcanic rocks that proved to be the oldest samples returned from the moon, while Cernan was the last man to walk there, an exit he dignified with humility and grace we can all be proud of. It doesn't particularly matter who took the picture as long as we have it.

The photo itself is lovely.

A Mindful Moment

Therapy Tuesday
Photo by: dcjohn

Indulge me. As author of today's blog post, I'm calling on all parents to create a "mindful moment" for himself or herself. A moment is something that lacks strict definition in terms of a quantity of time. It can be a second; minutes, hours...I will leave the time allotment completely up to you.

So what is a "mindful moment"? After all, shouldn't you understand what I'm asking you to do? That is another beauty in this concept: it's whatever you think it can be.  For some, it might be getting a chance to read the paper without doing a hundred other things. For others, it might be all out bliss in a yoga class. It could be a hot bath, time alone, driving and listening to the music YOU want to. There is no strict parameter for how you define how you spend your moment.

Why am I even asking this of you? Well, for your health. Part of your health includes your sanity. More and more studies are confirming what yoga enthusiasts intuitively know: yoga makes them feel better. The ability to be present and perform a task (whether it is a yoga pose or breathing rhythmically) shows positive effects on mood.  Additionally, meditation (of which yoga is a type of) can actually increase your brain's gray matter. Anyone with children knows that they can take their toll on your level of patience. Hence, my call for a "mindful moment."

Still not sure how to accomplish this task?  Here's a quick suggestion. Sit in a quiet place and allow yourself to get comfortable. Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing. Inhale while slowly (and silently) counting to 3. Hold that inhalation for 3 counts. Then exhale for a count of 3.  Repeat this cycle at least 5 times.  

There, that was a mindful moment. Not so hard! 

 

Understanding Energy and Radiation

Image via Wikipedia

Technology Thursday

It is hard to wrap my brain around the scale of the human tragedy in Japan. This is especially so coming on the heels of a spate of such large-scale disasters including Katrina, Pakistan, Haiti, the Gulf Oil Spill, and so many others that slip our minds once the news cycle turns. So I tend to think about things that maybe I can get my head around, such as nuclear power, methods to improve disaster response, funding for earthquake, volcano, and tsunami monitoring (don't get me started), and so on.

Like many, I'm fairly conflicted about nuclear power. While I usually hate couching things in an wishy-washy anodyne "middle" ground (it's often just a lazy copout), I think it's neither as safe as its proponents would like us to think, nor as easy to avoid as its detractors would like. I don't believe there is any way to realistically satisfy the anticipated energy demands of the United States without the use of nuclear power. At the same time, I have grave reservations about whether we're making appropriate forward progress toward a cleaner energy future. And it's abundantly clear we're not doing a jood job at all figuring out how to manage and store waste products.

Awhile back Jon Udell wrote about how our conceptions of energy usage are poor, or really, non-existent. What does it mean that a device will use 9 Watts an hour?