Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004230203
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARY BISHOP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Grownups are dumping this in the children's laps," groused Eleanor Snead, an 11-year-old at Roanoke's Community School.
Shanell Manning, a Salem fifth-grader, is out of patience. "If we are not going to stop using these harmful chemicals, we might as well sit on our butts and do nothing."
A Sunday afternoon spent reading children's environmental essays for a Science Museum of Western Virginia contest hits home more than a week's worth of glossy tracts from the big Earth-loving non-profits.
I mean, these are the people who will actually have to live with the damage we're doing.
Carl Leonard Dorton Jr., 10, of Fort Blackmore in Scott County, and his contemporaries are paying close attention.
"The community that I live in is surrounded by industry not far in several directions," he wrote.
"About eight miles away we have a waferboard-producing factory which emits chemicals into the air. One such pollutant is formaldehyde, which is a colorless gas with a stifling odor that irritates our eyes and noses. When you pass the plant you can smell this well-known gas. . . . I do not feel the air we breathe is always safe where I live."
Jama Paige Baker, an elementary school student in Russell County, has noticed disturbing things around her.
"When I was coming back from my grandmother's in Buchanan County," she wrote, "I noticed that the rain when it fell had black specks in it. . . . I also noticed that there was trash all over the place and the coal dirt gave me a headache."
There is nothing hazy about the morals of these young essayists.
Destruction of habitats for rain-forest animals is clearly unjust as far as Lynsi Marie Gambill, 9, of Strasburg is concerned. She instantly recognized the human equivalent: "What if the animals came in the cities and towns and ruined the houses?"
Ten-year-old Laura McManus of Salem longs to rescue the creatures. "We could hire a scientist to create a formula that would make the plants and animals stronger," she suggested.
These children imagine in graphic detail the flesh-and-blood impact of atmospheric changes - of a polar thaw on a polar bear, for example.
"Polar bears cannot tread water for as long as it would take to swim from the North Pole to a different continent," posited Eleanor Snead.
These kids are facing responsibility for their own behavior, not just giving the rest of us a hard time.
"I am looking around my house at such things as our curling iron, coffee maker, can opening, etc.," wrote Jennifer Murray, 11, who goes to the Community School in Roanoke.
She knows there is an environmental price for these conveniences.
"When I use my microwave," she said, "I am using electricity that comes from burned coal. The nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxides and sulphur dioxides from that burned coal go into the air and make acid rain. . . . [W]hen I roast a pork loin for 20 minutes in my microwave, I add one pound of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere."
Her schoolmate Eleanor Snead's predictions for 20 years down the road reflected the determination of other young essayists.
"The earth will be better by the year 2010," she said confidently, "because my generation will be burning less coal, carpooling, riding on public transportation, planting trees, running cleaner factories, recycling and conserving our resources."
by CNB