I’m sure I won’t win father of the year for this, and others will instruct me that this is far to “heavy” for a five year old but please understand that we are very careful what are kids are exposed to but I am sure some folks will take odds…that being said…

Last evening I once again watched An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore trying to brush up on some of the “plain language” he uses to describe some very in depth scientific concepts (I’m not so good at this myself). My daughters came to sit with me during the section about the melting polar ice sheets and her naturally curious nature led to some difficult questions. Then came the part showing the Plight of the Polar Bears where it shows a computer animated clip of a polar bear trying to find ice to climb back upon and the little piece it does find breaks apart as it tries to climb on it. This made her ask, as tears streamed down her cheeks, what was happening to the Polar Bear in the clip. I tried to explain the best I could what was happening, I noted that the ice was melting because the planet is warming up”. Of course she then asked why this was and I basically explained that “you know all the smoke from cars and factories, well that all goes up in the sky and its making things get warmer”) and this was making the ice melt that the polar bears live on (I know the science is a bit off, but she’s only five). As it started to sink in she started to weep uncontrollable, and it broke my heart in to. At this point I was thinking….Oh man, what kinda of Dad was I being and I said “but many people are trying to change this and we will do everything we can to save the Polar Bears”. At this point through the tears she said I want to help too…what can I do? And I thought for a moment and said “well we can turn the lights off when we don’t need them” and I proceeded to explain how a lot of the electricity came from power plants that put smoke up in the sky. Then it suddenly clicked in her brain, and off she went running around the house turning out all the lights crying…”turn off the lights…so the Polar Bears don’t die”. Then she stopped crying and got serious and said “we have to call everybody and tell them…quick daddy call” and she went on to name everyone she could think of. I said don’t worry most of them know, but when we se them or call them next I would let her “get the word out” to them. “We sill save them daddy…we have to” she said.

So this morning before anything else, I said to myself I would get my daughters plea out. To you all, to please”turn off the lights…so the Polar Bears don’t die”….