While I'm aware of his eco-interests and also love them, they are not something we typically talk about. However, the other day, we were driving to a more distant library to get a free book for him from some elementary school program they have up there. There are a lot of abandoned lots and buildings in Salt Lake City, and they seem more prevalent in J's neighborhood. As we passed one of the many vacated parking lots, J went on a sort of enviro-tangent.
"Look at all these empty lots!" He suddenly called out from the back seat. "Just such a waste! Why do they just let them be like that?"
"Well, a lot of times someone owns them and doesn't know what to do or doesn't have the money to do anything with them."
"Well that's just ridiculous. They should just plant a forest on all the empty lots and places, and then people would be able to go camping right in the city. And if all the lots were like that, it would be like living in a forest. Forests are so cool. And you know what they should do with all those empty houses that are falling apart? They should just tear off the roofs and then trees will grow inside of them and they would be fun places for kids to play."
He continued for a few more minutes, explaining that there are better ways to plan cities to accommodate trees and existing wildlife and expressing his frustration with society's complacency. I think he was getting a lot of bottled up emotions off of his chest, because after he'd said all he wanted to say about houses he sighed deeply, before moving on to discuss factories and the pollution they cause.
"I don't understand why they don't have factories which are not polluting. They know how to do it and they just don't for some reason. I mean, they don't even need a lot of factories and things, and they don't need to drill for oil if they would make wind turbines and solar panels and so many other things we know about. I know there would be no new Legos if they stopped drilling for oil, because plastic is made from oil and corn mostly, but I'd rather have no new Legos than a polluted planet. Maybe someday people will invent better ways to make Legos, but right now people just don't so they should just turn the factories into places for kids to play and trees to grow instead."
I was pretty impressed at this point. Then the real kicker came.
"You know how there's supposed to be a big earthquake in Utah right? The one they always talk about?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Well, I wish it would happen soon, because then all the buildings could fall down and the concrete would crumble, and then all the seeds deep in the earth would be able to grow, and instead of a city we'd have forest."
"But wouldn't that be sad if lots of people didn't have houses anymore? And no roads?"
"The earthquake is going to happen anyways... and besides, we could live in treehouses instead and get around on ziplines instead of cars. That would be way better than what we have now. I mean, look outside right now... there's more cars than there are trees. Ziplines are way more awesome than cars."
I can only hope my own children grow up with these thoughts.
My favorite kid environmentalist quote is: "why don't we just tear down all the buildings and plant trees and bushes and create swamp land in downtown portland so that all the turtles could have happy places to be.
ReplyDeleteHow cute! Kids are so much more savvy about the environment than my generation (who grew on on ZooBooks and Captain Planet)... hopefully that's a sign that the future is bright.
ReplyDeleteWe need more children like this. My fourth grade teacher inspired me to preserve the Earth every time she held a biology lecture. Then I grabbed a book titled 50 Simple Things Kids can do to Save the Earth. There are so many silly things people tend to ignore everyday--why use plastic bags when you can bring your own cloth bags? Why can't people just bike or walk to local areas? Why do toilets need to use so much water while flushing?
ReplyDeleteI adjust the brightness on my computer screen to my comfort threshold. I worry that the accommodations used for autistics are not necessarily ecological. Oftentimes they need to be driven far distances to attend the right schools, wear diapers into adulthood, or use incandescent as opposed to fluorescent light. This is another good reason to provide more local services for disabled citizens. I bet parents would be furious if they had to pay extra for starch-based adult diapers, or use cloth diapers. I personally do not feel uncomfortable in fluorescent light, but I try avoiding artificial light altogether. Many of my aspie friends hate it, and/or prefer to live a nocturnal lifestyle, so somebody needs to develop both eco- and autie- friendly light sources for them. (I will elaborate this on my blog soon)
One thing I can say, is that it will take some autistic thinking to fix the environmental catastrophies we are facing. I will be majoring in environmental science when I go to college.
That is so cool, good for you! We need more people going to school for environment-related degrees, instead of majors which throw people into profit-over-everything careers.
ReplyDeleteCrazy about your fourth grade teacher, my own fourth grade teacher turned me onto environmentalism as well.
Accommodations are often not ecological... two of the other children I work with commute almost an hour every to their school in order to get an adequate education. But yes, this is because disability services overall are quite lacking, not because they should HAVE to drive an hour to get into a decent autism program. They actually have an all-autism school very close to their house, but their program is quite outdated (very strict ABA/DTT) and they use adversives all too frequently, so their mother thankfully refuses to send them there.
I drive about twenty minutes from where I live in order to get to Kiddo's house, and then we usually end up driving somewhere else for an activity. It is completely ridiculous and makes me feel guilty pretty much on a daily basis... however, my husband and I are in the process of looking to an apartment closer to Kiddo's house (and our school and our other jobs).
I plan on using my bike and building/obtaining a bike cart to get Kiddo around once we are closer (ten miles is a lot to bike almost every day). I am also going to try skateboarding again with him this summer, and then maybe he'll have a way to get around on his own!