Climate Generation: Awakening to Our Children's Future by Lorna Gold New City Press This is a book about fierce love: a love that will go the the ends of the earth if a child is sick. This story is also about the personal waking up to climate change and the future we may leave our children. How does concern about climate change deepen our faith in Providence, the power of community, and the recent document of Pope Francis emphasizing our faith-based environmentalism? Lorna Gold has written a book for parenting our earth along with our children. Is climate change really an urgent matter? Aren't there so many other more urgent needs for our families today? Gold presents us with her conviction that the crises has become very real. My own mother reminds me that lack of water is going to be the next big challenge her great-grandchildren may face. In 2010 I stood on the Gulf of Mexico when oil came up onto the beach, polluting the pristine white sands. I witnessed a weird juxtaposition of people with full hazmat suits and scantly clad sunbathers. The volunteers who usually handed out leaflets reminding us to protect turtles and birds were nowhere to be seen. Later I found out that BP Oil usually funded their efforts. This spill was brought to us by BP Oil, the greed of some government agencies, big oil and gas. Our own complicity is not quite faultless, as this book presents. Though we are caught up in the cogs that keep society going, perhaps there is something we can do. What are the small choices we can help our children make? What changes can we in our home life? Will these make a difference? How might media literacy help? One small step that can be taken right now is reading this book prayerfully. Reminded of our connectivity, we can take steps as a family that show our gratitude to God's Provident love. Here is the prayerful reflection I wrote after  witnessing the oil spill firsthand. As I swam in the water almost a year months later, crude oil still clung to my skin when I emerged from the Gulf. Repercussions to generations of fish are not always brought to our attention. https://youtu.be/uRY8JyIpDMc  

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Copyright 2019 Sr. Margaret Kerry, fsp