{"id":3071,"date":"2021-06-24T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T07:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/?p=3071"},"modified":"2021-07-01T08:43:05","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T07:43:05","slug":"parents-for-a-future-how-we-broaden-the-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/parents-for-a-future-how-we-broaden-the-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents for a Future – how do we broaden the movement?<\/span>Rupert Read<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Walking along the street the other day, I overheard a fragment of a conversation. A mother with a pushchair was saying confidently said to her friend, ‘You know me, I\u2019d do anything to protect my kids\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a variation of a phrase I have often heard but, just recently, the urge to interrupt and say something along the lines of \u2018If that\u2019s true, prove it\u2019 has been getting stronger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe you feel the same?<\/span><\/p>\n

That mama- (or papa-) bear instinct, that all consuming love we feel for our children (or nieces\/nephews, grandchildren, godchildren\u2026) is incredibly powerful but so often taken-for-granted – until now.<\/span><\/p>\n

While generally unwilling to accost people in the street, I did wish I had a copy of my <\/span>recent book, Parents for a Future – How loving our children can prevent climate collapse<\/em>, that I could gently hand to her as she passed by.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a call to arms, of sorts. A definite challenge to the more than 80% of the world\u2019s adult population who are parents (plus anyone who cares about or for children; so that\u2019s pretty much all of us!).<\/span><\/p>\n

Surely, even if it\u2019s at the back of their minds, everyone now knows that the ecological and climate emergency is the biggest threat to our children?<\/span><\/p>\n

How do we explain that what this <\/span>means<\/span><\/i> is that, at this point in history, it is no longer enough to protect them the old-fashioned ways; by just looking after their health and their schooling, protecting them from playground bullies, making sure they know about stranger danger and so on?<\/span><\/p>\n

My book sets out why it\u2019s more than time to prove that if we truly would \u2018do anything\u2019 to protect our kids, we will take on not only the fight of <\/span>our<\/span><\/i> lives but, more importantly, the fight <\/span>for <\/span><\/i>their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trouble is, at the moment, it feels like the general population is sleep walking slowly but headlong into climate-driven societal collapse.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do we wake them up?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe now is the time. As the world attempts to reset following the horrors of the COVID pandemic, this is our one unexpected last chance to finally change our ways (and get other people to do the same) – and so do right by our kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you<\/span>\u2019<\/span>d have told me, in late 2019, that within months we<\/span>\u2019<\/span>d pull together to shut down our economy and ground the planes in order to stop our elders from being literally decimated – by a fatal disease that spread because of uncontrolled air travel – I would have called that far-fetched; but that<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s what we did.<\/span><\/p>\n

If we can do it once, we can do it again, because if life carries on as before, in the coming decade, it won<\/span>\u2019<\/span>t just be more deadly pandemics we have to contend with (though it will include that) but the likely end of this civilisation.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, again, how do you get people to understand we can\u2019t any longer outsource our collective self-protection\u00a0 to governments which are drastically failing us?<\/span><\/p>\n

How do we empower them to believe they have a chance against such a massive problem?<\/span><\/p>\n

For me, on the back of taking part in the adventure of Extinction Rebellion, it was writing this book with a simple message but with massive potential at its heart – if we truly love our children, we will <\/span>mean it <\/span><\/i>when we say we will do anything to protect them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are three objectives for us to aim at:<\/span><\/p>\n