I have a lot of friends and family whom if I ever brave bringing up environmental topics around, are very quick to shout out ” I don`t want to know!” What is it that makes people so afraid of information? I suppose that people feel as though if they have the information, that means they would have to act upon it. As long as they stay ignorant, life stays the same and requires no changes to action. Pretty sad I say.
If I asked those same people, if they would like to prevent their children from ever acquiring heart disease, osteoporosis or cancer, would their responses be the same? Why is change so hard for people?
If you had asked me a few years ago, if I could make all the changes in my life that I have, I am quite certain my answer would have been no. But, as I educated myself, my motivations grew, and living a more sustainable life became the only way I could feel positive about living and growing a family here on Earth. If life all of a sudden isn’t matching our own values, we feel the desire for change. So, perhaps changing people’s values is at the core of this issue.
I have read so many books over the last few years that have shaped and changed my views on the way I live my life and the way I want to teach my children to live their lives. There is a vast amount of research and information our there that supports the drastic need for change in the ways we use this planet. Humans today, particularly in North America, have built their lives around creating and maintaining modern-day conveniences, that asking people to put forth effort for change is almost impossible.
Last night I watched Jamie Oliver’s series The Food Revolution. In this particular episode, he has every door slammed in his face as he makes his way trying to improve the foods we feed our children in schools and the food we so readily consume in fast food restaurants. As much as it boggled his mind at people’s reactions and real lack of interest, it boggled my mind watching it. Those are the same questions I ask myself all the time and what drove me to write this exact post. I wanted to yell to Jamie through the tv screen “We believe you, we care, we want to know what we are putting in our and our children’s bodies!”
I heard a radio broadcaster announce on the radio this morning as I was driving my kids to school, that new research has come out saying that girls are now hitting puberty at an average age of 9. Go all the way back to 1840 and the average age was 16. The announcer went on to say that doctors are baffled and don’t know why this is happening – perhaps higher rates of obesity, perhaps hormones. Come on people! What has changes so dramatically over the last 100 years to have such dramatic impacts on girls of today? Our diet! Doctors should be screaming that from the rooftops! And more importantly, people should be listening, caring and willing to make positive changes.
I also read recently, that 2/3 rds of North American 12 year olds have the first stages of heart disease. Jamie Oliver is on the right path to do for our kids what the parents who “don’t want to know”, should be doing. It is a real shame we can’t see past our conveniences to see the real costs involved. So kudos to you Jamie!
Let’s stop being afraid of information. Let’s learn from it, question it, grow from it. It is the only way that tomorrow will be better than today.
