Not so clean and green

We could read it in the paper this week, New Zealand's ecological footprint is now the sixth largest in the world, and expanding fast. The ecological footprint measures the amount of resources humans use and the waste they generate, and New Zealand rates amongst the ten worst, per head, in the world. According to the Living Planet report, produced by WWF, more than three-quarters of the world's population take more from the planet than they put back. New Zealand has moved from requiring 5.9 "global hectares" per person in the 2006 WWF report to an average of 7.7 global hectares. A global hectare is a standardised hectare of land able to produce resources and absorb wastes at world average levels. Worldwide, the average ecological footprint jumped from 2.2 global hectares per person to 2.7 global hectares per person, but the world has only an average 2.1ha available per person. If demand keeps growing at the same rate, the equivalent of two planets will be required in the mid-2030s to sustain current lifestyles. Watch James Leape, Director General of the WWF International, talk about the Living Planet report on this YouTube video.



If we want adults to care passionately about what is happening to our planet we need to generate such emotion in childhood. Experiences during the early years shape the values and attitudes toward the world. Children carry these with them throughout their life. The more personal children experience nature, the more environmentally concerned and active they are likely to become. Our preschoolers today will be the decision makers tomorrow.

As young children spend more and more time in our early childhood settings, we, as early childhood teachers, have a very important role. We need to create environments for our children that foster in each child a strong sense of belonging to the web of life. An outdoor naturalised preschool environment, where children are given time to interact with nature and living things, an environment that nurtures their love and appreciation of nature and their surroundings. Rather then steel, concrete, plastic and rubber matting, we need to give our children access to logs, rocks and a natural environment and give them opportunities to explore the beauty and wonders of plants, bushes, trees and flowers. Children also need an adult who shares nature with them. An adult who stops, looks and marvels with them at the miracles they discover. An adult who introduces them to the values of stillness, wonder, simplicity, peace, compassion and care of the earth. An adult who introduces the children to environmental stewardship. "Humans are now exceeding the planet's regenerative capacity by about 30 percent," the Living Planet report said, putting future prosperity under threat.

At our preschool we have a strong focus on the natural world where children can experience how their actions affect the environment as well as how the environment affects them. It is important our young children are given time to interact with nature and living things, before they can understand it well enough to want to preserve it. Reconnecting children with the natural world hopefully creates a future generation that values and preserves nature.