“Children, local community, ecology, investment & yeast”

Yesterday I spent an hour with Room 3 at Somerfield School.

It is Conservation Week and I was invited to go and explore with the class how they as children can make a difference to conservation.

It was an incredibly rewarding session.

I began by holding a globe of the world (made by one of the children) in my hand and asking them how many places in the universe are like this one? I then told them that America is living in a way that over the long term would require 5.5 planets to sustain. I went on to ask them how many planets our way of life in New Zealand requires to keep going.

Some of them got close. It is 2.9 planets.

We also explored together the four principles of bringing about change - research, education, joining together with others and action. I suggested that if we want to change something about the world the best places to start are with something we really care about, and something that is close by and achievable. It is our caring that gives us the passion to face a challenge. That is the heart stuff. But we also need to use our heads and that is where the research is necessary. It is also impossible to change things on our own and so that’s why we need to share what we know with others and then work together to bring about the change that is needed.

The children had many wise thoughts about how we can better care for creation, and were concerned about everything from spiders to oceans.

It was a humbling experience sharing around such an important issue.

I shared a little with them stories about earth-caring projects I’m involved in - tree planting and maintenance; and pest control in Kennedy’s Bush. I was amazed with their level of understanding of basic ecological principles. I think I may have found a few new recruits for this ongoing work. The teacher in Room 4 has already signed up for pest control.

I also shared with them, the research project I am about to embark on with the Heathcote River. I told them that when I am finished I will be putting together a power point presentation that I can use as a tool to help educate others in the local community and hopefully gather support for action. The class asked if they could be my first audience!

In a week where the news has been full of the milk-poisoning of Chinese babies from New Zealand produced milk; and the collapse of major international finance and insurance companies it is important for us to focus on the goodness in our own communities and to seek to further build up this goodness.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again the only healthy future for the global village is one where we invest love and goodness and caring in every way we can in our local community. There are so many ways we can enrich the lives of others around us and care for the natural world where we are.

A globalized world is a dangerous one because we are conditioned continually to devalue what is local at the expense of what is somewhere else. It is also one where we cut corners for the sake of profit because the people our products will impact on are not our neighbours.

So support truly local businesses. Support local organizations. Support the local library and cafe, go to the local parks. Value everything that is local. Eat locally grown food. Grow your own food and share it. Watch less television and spend more time wandering your neighbourhood, meeting people and building up your connection with them.

Invest in our local community. Build up its infrastructure. Build up our local bio-diversity. This is the work of those who are called to be like yeast in helping their whole community to be raised up to its full potential.

Mark