Pre to K Wave Warriors

“Tell me my little ones, how can we save the world?” I asked my darling daughters as they sat in their beds after a fun filled day at the beach, “What can we do to help the environment and protect our oceans?”

As we navigate our adult lives we make daily choices about the environment built upon a lifetime of shared knowledge and experiences. By this stage we’re all confident we know how we can best serve the environment in a way that works for us and if we’re willing to acknowledge that we don’t do enough, if we decide we want to change, there’s an endless supply of information on the internet we can turn to that will guide us as we make those necessary adjustments to our lives. For many of us even the simplest changes can seem like a lot of work, but what is like for children?

When I asked my four and five year olds their eyes lit up with excitement, the spark of creativity inspiring an endless well of ideas. So many dreams spilled forth from their little minds that nothing in this universe could convince them they couldn’t realise.

“We’re heroes!” They cried, “We’re going to save the world!”

While many ideas involved magical solutions and alien overlords and rainbow unicorn mermaids, there were quite a number of them that have a place in the world beyond that of pure imagination, our world.

So here it is, the Pre-School and Kindy kids’ guides to saving our oceans and the world.

#1 Clean up the beach so the fishies will be alright! Clean up every single place you go!

There was a lot more to this part of the discussion about making sure rubbish and poison don’t overflow, keeping the fishies and other creatures from eating things they shouldn’t, making sure nothing bad makes its way into the ocean, and all I can say to this idea is, yes! Let’s do it.

Let’s reduce our consumption and, in turn, our waste. Let’s dispose of hazardous waste correctly. Let’s retrieve any rubbish we find and dispose of that correctly too.

My daughters already, at such a young age, run up to any rubbish they see on the ground and know to look for the correct bin. When I was walking to work with them one day, they surprised passers-by by racing outward on a mission and collecting all the trash that had been discarded on the ground. They wanted to make sure the environment was maintained and the animals were safe. It’s a fairly common act for them now, but this was the first time they took that step without any prompting.

“We have to save the environment!” They told me and I couldn’t have been prouder.

I so often hear people complaining, refusing to tidy anything that is not their own, but if we were all a little more willing to just help for the sake of helping, the world would be a much nicer place.

#2 Wear costumes made of rubbish!

While at first glance this may seem a little silly, it does hit on a few key points. Let’s consider three very important R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Wearing costumes made of rubbish can hit a few of these points. When my children use things we no longer need to create costumes or other items like dollhouses for their toys they both save these objects from being prematurely disposed of and keep us from buying unneeded items. Why would we need to buy new play hats or masks when we have the child-built robot heads and hero helmets? Why buy new capes, wings, or dolls clothes, when we can repurpose damaged clothes and cloth items? Why buy new accessories when old handbags can be altered to suit the creative stylings of small children?

In a time when children and adults alike use so many single-use or quickly deteriorating items, using creative thinking to recognise the reusability of unexpected items can make a difference. And at the end of it all, there are still so many items, such as cardboard and bottles, that can be properly recycled under the clear state guidelines.

#3 Throw seaweed back in the ocean so the otters don’t float away because they eat sea urchins!

Now, I have to say, I had no idea what my five year old was talking about when she brought this up. Honestly, I knew absolutely nothing about sea otters and while I smiled, nodded and applauded her creativity, I wondered where this thought had come from. I almost dismissed it but I know as well as any other adult how little I truly know about the world, so I jumped online and tried to work it out. It was educational to say the least.

It turns out sea otters do play a part in reducing carbon emissions and while they alone cannot make a marked difference, it’s worth exploring how keystone species such as these can influence the carbon cycling in ecosystems. While kelp may not be able to just be thrown back to save our oceans, the return of more kelp forests can only be a good thing with their ability to absorb CO2. Sea otters and kelp forests work in tandem to reduce carbon emissions. These sea otters spend their lives in the oceans and actually do wrap themselves in giant kelp to keep from floating away. My daughter also mentioned an important part of the sea otters’ diet, sea urchins. Believe it or not, these sea urchins can decimate kelp forests if they’re not kept in check and by feasting on these spiny creatures sea otters allow the kelp forests to take in more than ten times the amount of CO2 they’d be able to otherwise.

I know we can’t just jump in the water and help them along with this as a part of our everyday lives, but a lot of wildlife protection actions such as volunteer work, oil reduction, and proper disposal of hazardous waste can help these little wildlife warriors and other fundamental creatures like them. Every little bit helps.

#4 Don’t let the bad guys destroy everything!

Every day they see it on the television, hear about it in books, play pretend to experience it, and talk about it with friends, heroes saving the day against villains who plan to destroy everything. With the innocence of small children, they believe it’s really that simple. Fight the bad guys, win the day. As adults we know it’s a little more complicated than that. These fights take more time, but it’s important to remember that they are still worth fighting.

So, who are the bad guys in this situation? And who are the heroes we can support so they can continue to fight the good fight?

Well, we all know the damage that can be caused by the coal companies releasing toxic substances into waterways, developers damaging important natural formations and ecosystems, and any number of other industrial polluters destroying the environment in so many different ways.

We also know that there numerous environmental activist groups we can support financially or raise awareness for like the Waterkeeper Alliance. Let’s get behind these groups who are out there protecting our waterways, enforcing environmental law, and advocating for the waters they defend. What better way to stop the bad guys from destroying everything than to support the good guys?

#5 We could not waste water!

It seems like such a simple premise, so simple that even the youngest of children are able to easily recognise its importance, yet somehow we still miss the mark on this one. Only so much of the water in the world is viable for consumption, but that’s not the only reason we need to conserve it. The overuse, or wastage, of water has an impact on our carbon footprint. As a general rule, the energy it requires for us to access the water we use means carbon emissions.

So what are some ways we can take my two daughters’ advice and “not waste water”? The most obvious one is, if you don’t need the water, don’t use it. Speed up those showers, there’s no need for those endless internal therapy sessions under the running faucet. Save those deep thought moments for your dreams. Don’t leave the water running unnecessarily while brushing your teeth. There’s room for pause. Keep an eye on your water sources for leaks and maintain them. Install water saving flow restrictors. There are so many ways we can “not waste water”. Jump on board. Let’s do this together.

It’s time to take a leaf out of these little wave warriors’ book and rediscover the excitement of caring for our waterways and our world. I look forward to continuing the methods we already have in place, and implementing a few new ones to be one of the heroes my daughters already strive to be. I hope you find the same joy and excitement as them in your world saving adventures too. Good luck on your mission!