If you think your children are not hearing and paying attention to all the stories of doom and gloom for the planet, think again.

Those little minds are like sponges and take in all the information around them. And it scares them.

More than that, those stories can potentially rob your children of motivation, future planning, hope and joy. They can even lead to depression, particularly during the troubled teen years.

The good news is you can counteract the negativity that stems from doomsday stories and empower your children to save the world.

DOOMSDAY REPORTS DO NOT EMPOWER YOUR CHILDREN

Last month British physicist Stephen Hawking announced we had just 100 years to leave the planet – or die.

This sensational claim was media headlines in Australia for several days. Did you think the kids missed hearing this?

I know, from talking to the Goddesses and my Wacky Workshops students, that they did not miss it.

Can you imagine how it makes them feel? The world we know and love will die so we need to jump ship, or in this case planet.

There is no way on earth, or off of it, that we can move the entire human species to another planet in that timeframe. Who will be left behind?

FEEDING THEIR FEAR DOES NOT EMPOWER YOUR CHILDREN

How frightening must this information be for children who have their whole lives ahead of them?

Professor Hawkings claimed we had 1000 years before The End of The World in November last year.

So what has changed in the past seven months?

When you read further into the latest Stephen Hawkings claims it becomes apparent he has made them as part of his promotion for a new documentary where he will travel the world to find out how humans can live on another planet.

Professor Hawkings is not the only one making doomsday predictions.  Climate change, entire species dying out and the very real possibility that the human race will be wiped out by epidemics or even an asteroid strike, are familiar stories.

Meanwhile, young kids are left terrified and teens are wondering if there is any point in working towards a future that may not exist.

They are being robbed of their dreams of amazing careers, beautiful homes and creating their own families.

If that doesn’t lead to depression, I don’t know what will.

And you can’t shield children from the doomsday stories in a world where information is at the tip of our fingers.

GOOD NEWS TO EMPOWER YOUR CHILDREN

What you CAN do is empower your children to be involved in helping to save the planet.

I for one would rather die fighting to save this planet, then to sit back and wonder if I will be part of the chosen few who get to recolonise whatever planet is thought suitable. If and when that time comes.

Luckily, there are a lot of scientists who feel the same way and are working diligently to come up with solutions.

These are the stories we need to share with the kids.  Not sensational enough to stay in the headlines, they can be hidden behind all the doom and gloom.

They are the stories of people making a very real and positive difference to our planet.

GOOD NEWS STORIES

For instance, Canadian researchers have developed a device that can suck carbon dioxide pollution out of the air and convert it to fuel.

There is a similar machine near Zurich.

Then there is the former NASA engineer who has come up with the idea of using drones to plant trees at the rate of one billion per year – something that is virtually impossible for humans to do but essential to counteract all the bulldozing and tree clearing we do for housing, paper and farming.

Last year scientists discovered bacteria inside the gut of a mealworm that can safely degrade plastic. They are working on making this more efficient. This is excellent news to counter the prediction that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

To deal with all the plastic currently polluting our oceans, a 22-year-old has come up with the idea of creating a giant filter and attaching it to the seafloor. Natural ocean currents will collect the rubbish. He came up with this idea when he was just 17.

Scientists are working on ways to create artificial clouds to help cool down the planet.

MORE GOOD NEWS

One company has designed an edible water bottle made out o the sustainable packaging.

Researchers have found that some corals are adapting to warmer ocean temperatures.

The littlest things can sometimes make a huge difference towards regaining the Earth’s natural balance, as in the case when 14 wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.

A couple in India have spent 26 years replanting a rainforest.

One man is taking creative recycling to a whole new level by building homes out of plastic bottles.

There are countless stories of people working towards saving our planet. People who have not yet given up on our beautiful Earth.

When you share these stories with your children, you give them hope.

HOW TO EMPOWER YOUR CHILDREN

You can take this one step further and empower your children to be part of the solution.

The most obvious way to do this is to teach them how to recycle. Then, make them aware of the difference just a small amount of recycling can make. For instance, recycling six aluminium cans can save enough energy to offset the carbon emissions from a 10 km journey in an average-sized car.

CREATIVE RECYCLING TO EMPOWER YOUR CHILDREN

Another way to ensure children feel they have the power to make a difference and are not just at the mercy of a bunch of grownups is to encourage their creative abilities to reinvent things.

The picture above shows six aluminium cans that have been recreated to form a desk caddy and a little container.

By turning them into useful objects, they have not ended up in landfill. The added benefit is there is no need to buy those objects and the packaging that goes with them. A double win.

More than that, the children’s creative abilities are being promoted and by helping them think outside the box, we are grooming them to be the innovators of the future. The saviours of our planet.

This is one of the main goals of Wacky Workshops Arts and Crafts for Kids. I teach my students they can make a difference and give them creative skills to do just that.

Here’s what one of the parents of my former students had to say about Wacky Workshops.

My girls loved wacky ! They still talk about it today. You showed them you can make something out of anything!

Liz

Have a gleeful week, Tamuria.