Boston GreenScene: Environment 101: Not Just for Kids

by Daniel E. Walsh Author of Our Sunday "History & Reflections" Series

Environmental discussion is often couched in very esoteric terms and concepts. Terms—such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC)—get tossed around by well-meaning commentators like a square dance caller’s dosey-dos. The average couch surfer can pretend to sort of know what a CFC is, but a chlorofluorocarbon is something else again. This green thing can get very complicated at times.

An example of a concept that may be foreign to the layman is carbon auctioning as described in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative's (RGGI) Memo of Understanding. So, before you swing that partner to and fro, you may need a little assistance.

Many adults (including this writer) who are easily confused by big concepts can find clarity by checking out books from the children’s or juvenile section of the library. Let’s face it: if (to paraphrase author Robert Fulghum) all you need to know you learned in kindergarten, then doesn’t it make sense to read a children’s book on any subject?

The Boston Public Library has a section devoted entirely to environmental issues for kids called “Celebrating Earth: Environmental Books for Children.” There, you can feign a detached interest while you grab a handful of books for Little Bobby’s project at school. A recent handful, obtained in exactly that sheepish manner, contained these nuggets:

True Green Kids, written by the Australian writers Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin and published by National Geographic, has a handy glossary in the back. Simple explanations can be found for terms such as greenhouse gas and ecological footprint. Why and how trees reduce the presence of carbon dioxide is also presented in a very understandable fashion. If you’re looking for a quick primer on terms and directions to websites you can check out—this is the ticket.
The little known fact that Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier was the first to identify and name the greenhouse effect is found in Michigan writer Peggy J, Parks’ Global Warming. This book gives a fair presentation of the many theories on the subject of the greenhouse gas effect.
New Yorker Laurence Pringle describes in plain language the make-up, history, and controversy surrounding the ozone layer in Vanishing Ozone, Protecting Earth from Ultraviolet Radiation. In an easy 60 pages, Pringle takes the reader from the discovery of the problem in the 1960’s through to what currently is being done about the situation.

This random sampling taken from the corner library is an encouraging sign that there are many voices raised to alert us to the dangers of global warming. These voices present their ideas and impart information in a plainspoken, user-friendly manner.

To most casual observers, it is becoming apparent that environmental concerns are dominating discourse in multiple areas of life. Knowing a little more about the subject - even in a fundamental way - can be helpful. However, you need more than a bolo tie to come to the square dance – you’d better know what the caller means or you’ll weave a tangled mess of cowboy shirts and denim skirts. Making things easy to understand and showing the way—by example—is something even a child can understand.

By the way—going back to the issue of carbon auctioning, your humble columnist learned (thanks to True Green Kids), that it goes something like this: “OK, kids (carbon producing companies) we know you’re going to be bad some of the time, so we’re going to give you 5 Get-Out-Of-Trouble tickets that you can use all year. Now, if you’re exceptionally good (by doing things like replanting trees that reduce CO2) and don’t need to use your tickets, you can sell them to the other kids who have misbehaved more than you, and they can use them to stay out of trouble.”

There. That’s simple.