An Inconvenient...um

...Truth. We went to see it last night, and I had to fight back sheer panic at the scope of this crisis (global warming, ice caps melting, polar bears drowning - very sad little graphic there, drought, flood, hurricanes, water levels rising 20 feet, Greenland breaking apart into the sea, species extinction...is that scary enough?).

I left feeling overwhelmed, and my husband tried to pep talk me back up. "We can try to fight this," he said. Get involved, do our best to make personal changes, write to politicians, go to marches, etc. And cleverly, people were handing out flyers after the movie, and it turns out there's a march in London coinciding with climate talks in Nairobi. It's the National Climate March on Saturday, 4th November, and my husband and I will be there. I'll also email everyone I know and encourage them to come too. What little we can do...

So I thought about children's books - books that address environmental themes, companies that are aware of good environmental practices (all those trees!), authors and artists who've spoken out on this issue. I can't say I was flooded with ideas. Here are a few, though.

Egmont children's books has made environmental impact a part of their mission, reducing it, I mean. They write about 'Ethical Publishing', which includes fair working practices, and use of socially responsible forestry sources. That's a good start, I think.

When I worked at Children's Book Press, we used to get people complaining that our books were printed in China and Hong Kong. And it was a problem. The prices there were so much cheaper than doing 4-color printing in the USA or Canada. I remember talking to our very nice print-broker, Matthew, and he reassured me that working practices were OK. But we were trapped in a conundrum there - somewhere that a lot of publishers are trapped when it comes to where they have their books printed. Academic Dan Hade delivers an excellent lecture on the American Girl series, part of which looks at the (often young) people who work in appalling conditions to make these books. (He brought the house down with this one at the 2005 Children's Literature International Summer School - here's the abstract for his lecture).

One of the most inspiring and radical actions I've heard of is author Philip Pullman's decision to stop flying. Now that's a dramatic thing to do - especially if you're Philip Pullman and asked to travel all over the world. Of course, he may have seen that as a benefit (less travel for an overly-busy author). But it's a huge thing to do. With my family in California, I don't feel I can make that commitment. And even if they weren't, it still could feel like too big a sacrifice. My own failing - and more credit to Philip for making this commitment.

And books? There have been lists made of children's books dealing with the environment. Doing a quick google, there's an award in Australia, Boston Public Library has booklists, there's a downloadable PDF of Children's Environmental Literature from Wisconsin's Project WILD... When I was at Lee & Low, I edited a book called Christmas Makes Me Think. This was taken from a poem that fantastic radical author Tony Medina had originally written for DeShawn Days. It involved a boy thinking about Christmas, how he'd rather give a turkey dinner than eat if, how he'd like to give presents to trees rather than cut them down, etc. I'm not sure it totally worked - it ended up feeling pretty didactic. And that's a tricky thing with messagey books. I think my favorite part is Tony's note at the end, about his wanting to try to make the world a better place. This is often something kids think about too - sometimes more earnestly than adults who have become jaded and don't believe the world can change.

Truth be told, I'm not coming up with lots of booklists when I search the net. There are websites for kids about understanding global warming, such as the EPA's (I have to wonder how accurate a US government-run site is, though...). In the movie, Gore talked about how the government in the United States has been one of the biggest obstacles to dealing with this issue (denial, anyone?) - especially galling since the US is the biggest contribute of CO2 gases.

I remember being a kid in the 1980s (born in 1970), and the real fear that nuclear war would kill us all. I used to lay in bed at night listening for the sound of missiles coming, and The Day After was horrifying. It didn't happen, and I have to hope that humans can make the changes we need to make to stop this as well. The website from the film has tips about things to do individually to make a difference. Husband and I are looking at ways to install a wind turbine on the roof. I get the daily emails from Ideal Bite, which are fun, hip tips about how to live in a way that is easier on the earth. But we still drive lots, and fly regularly. I want to be an eco-warrior, but right now think I'm more of a eco-minion. It's hard to overcome the feeling of overwhelming guilt, but I know that doesn't help. So we go forward, and do the best we can....