Editor’s Note: Julian Lennon is a Grammy-Award nominated musician, best-selling author and accomplished photographer. His new children’s book is “Love the Earth” (the third in a trilogy from Sky Horse Publishing). Follow him on Instagram @Julespictureplace. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
People from every generation have looked back on the era when they grew up with fondness. I do too. Yet my feeling is now tinged with melancholy that the youth of today are growing up in a far more difficult world.
Complexity is everywhere. The environment is threatened. This week, for example, we learned from a UN science policy report – written by 145 experts from 50 countries – that one million of the planet’s eight million species are threatened with extinction by humans. It is the most comprehensive assessment of global nature loss ever, they said.
At the same time, young people are in constant interaction with social media, the effects of which have yet to be fully understood – and the incessant distraction of the internet poses challenges previously unknown. Thinking back, I can’t imagine having been forced to see posts on Facebook or Instagram about everyday anxieties like parties I may not have been invited to when I was a boy, or ex-girlfriends posting images of their new loves. Sheer torture!
But we can help our young people as they face, and eventually take responsibility in, this complicated world. An antidote to all the chaos and dreadful noise is Mother Nature. Going back to our roots replaces complexity with simplicity, social media with silence, and connects us to our most basic selves.
Nothing helps ground us more than being outdoors – whether it’s just playing in the trees (as I used to do growing up in the lush English and Welsh countryside), swimming in the ocean or a lake, or just being at a local park.
In nature, we feel more alive. We realize that we are part of something bigger than ourselves – something good, something kind, something loving. All young people need this.
I was inspired to write my trilogy of children’s books (“Touch the Earth,” “Heal the Earth,” and “Love the Earth”) so that parents could share a love of nature and our environment with their children. It’s so important to instill these values in our young. I believe when you love something, you naturally want to care for it.
I loved when my mother and grandmother read to me before I took a nap or at night before bedtime. These are moments when we wrap children in love and peace (hopefully), and when they are most receptive to absorbing lessons about our common humanity, but also about so many other things; especially to respect Mother Earth, and to consider all her benefits.
I urge parents to make it a priority to read to their children as many books about our planet as they can find – about insects and birds and animals and rocks and trees. The message they will take away is that the earth is amazing, and what is good for it is good for us all.
The next step, of course, is exploring the beautiful planet together. During the day, when your kids come home from school, for example, instead of letting them get on their computers or turn on the television, plan something outside. Take them for a visit to the local park (most urban areas have at least some place with dirt and bugs and grass and trees); if you can, walk around and notice the local fauna and animals, or have a picnic.
In addition, engage your children with local initiatives and activities that get them out in nature. Children are healthier, both emotionally and physically, if they spend more time outdoors. With that exposure will also come a respect for our environment and the desire to get rid of the plastic in our oceans, the pollution from factories. They will see how our individual actions can help give everyone on our planet access to clean air and clean water.
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This generation’s children will be the next adult keepers of our precious Mother Earth. We must embolden and empower them to be prepared for the fight. In the end, environmental concerns are intertwined with humanitarian and geographic concerns. As I wrote in “Love The Earth,” “We are one all one people: Humanity. We have one home: Planet Earth.”
I believe that we’re all one.
Under the sky, under the sun.
Children connected till the struggle is done.
Each to the other till the battle is won.