Green, Baby, Green!
(first printed in the Wet Set Gazette, February 22, 2008)


Green, green, green. Everything is turning green. The realities and the seriousness of global warming are finally setting in, and the environmental movement is reaching beyond Earth Day. It is exciting how companies and governments are making big changes, and how families are making little changes that add up to big differences in how much warmer our climate will eventually become. But as a new mom, it may be hard to find the time to change your light bulbs, or to find the money to buy a new hybrid. Don’t worry! There are plenty of important things you can do that will not only reduce the amount of carbon you release into the atmosphere, but will help you raise a responsible new citizen of our planet, and have some fun along the way.

One of the most important steps you can take is to educate yourself – and the best way for a mom to do this is get a children’s book on the subject! Isn’t that how you learned about the planets and the names of tide pool animals? My favorites on climate are A Clean Sky: The Global Warming Story by Robyn C. Friend and Why Are the Ice Caps Melting? by Anne Rockwell. As you read these books with your young children, it is important to focus on taking care of our planet just because we care about it, and avoid discussing future perils like the loss of the arctic ice cap and flooded cities – it is just too scary for a young child. Here are a few more ideas:

Visit a polar bear. There are two excellent places to watch real bears romp and play: The San Diego Zoo and Sea World. Talk about how warm their fur is because they live in one of the coldest places on Earth, and how big their claws are for hunting seals and climbing out of the water into the ice, and how hard it would be for a polar bear to live in a warm place like Los Angeles. Appreciating the polar bear will eventually help your child appreciate the entire arctic environment, which is impacted more dramatically than any place on Earth by rising temperatures.

Get the farmer’s market habit. Do you know the difference between an apple from a farmers’ market and an apple from the grocery that came from South America? Pounds of carbon dioxide from the fuel it took to get the South American apple to you. And taste! There is nothing sweeter than a farmers’ market Fuji. Check the www.cafarmersmarkets.com website for a location near you.

Find a nice big tree and give it a hug. Invite your baby to give it a hug, too. Talk about how a tree is like a person: its trunk is like your body, its limbs like your arms, its leaves like your hands and its roots like your feet. It needs food and water just like you, and it breathes just like you – through its leaves. For a variety of trees, take a trip to the Los Angeles County Arboretum or the South Coast Botanical Gardens where you may choose from oaks, banana trees, redwoods and ginkgos.  Or take a hike up a trail in the Angeles Crest Forest, or along a trail near Sooky Goldman Nature Center or Eaton Canyon Nature Center. Then read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

Take the train. Trains are the most fuel-efficient means of transportation next to strollers and bicycles. There are many options in Southern California including Metro Rail, which has light rail trains including the red line that is a subway; Metrolink, a commuter train that is clean, fast and has great windows; and, for longer distances, Amtrak. For an extra-amazing train trip, take Metrolink from your nearest station to the San Juan Capistrano station, and visit the Zoomars Petting Zoo.

Join an Earth Day Celebration. Los Angeles and Orange counties are teeming with them. Most are excellent but often busy and crowded. For a young child, you might try celebrations organized by the STAR Ecostation, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium or your favorite natural history museum.

Visit a recycling center – either at your local grocery store or a bigger operation. And read Recycle!: A Handbook for Kids by Gail Gibbons.

Plant a garden. Start with something easy like radishes, tomatoes or carrots, or lettuce in the winter. Have you read The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss? Or plant something bigger like a lemon tree, and teach your child to make lemonade. The tree will take in lots of carbon as it grows, and eventually you can give it a hug! And think of all the juice boxes you will not use once you have your own source of lemons! If you don’t have a good place for planting, visit the Underwood Family Farm that has acres of fruits and vegetables planted specifically for children to pick.


Before I was a mom, I was a scientist with NASA and spent my days trying to understand our climate using satellites and the Space Shuttle. Although the rise in carbon dioxide was obvious, the associated rise in temperature ten years ago was still pretty noisy with weather and El Ninos cluttering up the signal. So during my children’s early years, I drove a lot, bought an SUV, loaded the trunk with plastic water bottles and coveted my long hot baths. When my kids were two, I retired from NASA and forgot all about the climate until I was asked by Al Gore last year to join 1000 other people to give his slide show about global warming. In getting ready to go to Nashville to be trained, I drove all over town looking for the right blouse, loaded my children’s Easter baskets with pounds of plastic junk packaged in more pounds of plastic wrapping and reserved a giant hotel room with an impressive air conditioner. Then I saw the latest temperature data and pictures of disappearing glaciers and shrinking arctic ice, and I came home and said, “Yikes, temperatures really are rising and I am not doing anything about it!” I quickly learned it takes time to change. But change does make a huge difference not only in your own life, but going green is contagious and pretty soon others around you are making changes, too. Now I get a little preachy when I give my climate talks and tell people what they can do to make a difference. But I think it is a great and achievable challenge to improve our planet and I hope you do, too!


Happy trails,

JoBea Holt