Understorey: Child’s Play, the Environment, and Deliberative Democracy

The natural world is essential for the healthy development of children, yet many screens compete for their attention in this Information Age.  As young people grow older it may dawn on them that this world of nature is having its habitats torn down while its atmosphere is being heated up and plastics are being emptied into the oceans.  

All this raises the question: How can we prepare young people for the changes ahead of us, whilst not overwhelming them?  How can we give them a childhood connected to nature, and yet also prepare them for a life of active citizenship,? Adrian Glamorgan speaks to an eleven year old adept at Minecraft, with his ecologist dad Steve McCabe, about ways to engage primary school students; and to uni student India Aniere, about the Millennium Kids Youth Climate Deliberation being held during next week’s Australian Association for Environmental Education National Conference in Mandurah. Each young person speaks with care and insight of a world still rich with green hope.

Photo: India Aniere, Facilitating (Millennium Kids)