To the editor,
Re: School students to strike with walkout, March 8.
I am a parent of a five-year-old kindergartener. As most five-year-olds, he is fascinated about his world. We are lucky to be able to intimately introduce our children to forests, rivers, the ocean beaches and the mountains. Our family hikes include harvesting food as we walk and tracking animal and ocean creature movements. We hunt for fossils and look at old growth logging stumps and talk about how our land used to be before people and settlers were here. We can see these marks on the Earth.
Our son doesn’t understand that he’s been given a horrible legacy of environmental crises. He knows that plastics kill ocean creatures; he picks up all garbage he sees. He is aware that many species of animals are dying because of human action. He knows our actions impact our environment.
I want him to learn that he can be powerful, especially alongside other community members in making actionable, concrete changes in how we live on our earth. I want our leaders to teach our kids that we can globally change practices and laws to better serve our planet.
Jen McMullen, Nanaimo
The views and opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the writer and do not reflect the views of Black Press or the Nanaimo News Bulletin. If you have a different view, we encourage you to write to us or contribute to the discussion below.