the children are watching: what kind of planet are we leaving them?
🤔🌏🌎🌍💙🌊🔥💚🌈🔥🥵🥶🥵🥶🥵🥶🥺
The environment, climate change, water, forests, artificial intelligence and the responsibility we have to future generations.
I keep coming back to one thing when I think about the environment.
The children.
What must it feel like to grow up watching wildfires destroy communities, floods swallow neighbourhoods, rivers dry up, oceans fill with plastic and forests disappear?
What must it feel like to hear adults talk about climate change year after year, make promises, attend international conferences, set targets and then continue making decisions that put the environment under pressure?
And what happens when children begin to lose faith that the adults responsible for protecting their future are actually doing enough?
These aren't hypothetical questions anymore.
children are taking governments to court
Something important is happening right here in British Columbia.
You may have heard about the young Canadians taking the federal government to court over climate change.
There is a correction worth making: it isn't ten children. It is 15 young Canadians, who were between the ages of 10 and 19 when they originally filed their case in October 2019.
Their case is called La Rose v. His Majesty the King.
After years of legal challenges, their case finally went to trial in Vancouver on October 26, 2026.
They argue that Canada's climate policies and continued greenhouse gas emissions threaten their constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of the person under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
They want the government held accountable for the consequences of its climate decisions.
Think about that for a moment.
Some of these young people were barely teenagers when they began this legal fight. They have spent seven years pursuing it.
They are now asking the courts to consider whether governments have a constitutional responsibility to protect their future.
Whatever the eventual court decision, their concerns deserve to be heard.
And this isn't the only youth-led climate case in Canada. Young people in Ontario and elsewhere have also challenged government climate policies.
Why are children having to take governments to court to get their concerns taken seriously?
what are we doing to their mental health?
We talk about children's mental health, anxiety, depression, bullying and the pressures of growing up in a complicated world.
But how often do we talk about the environment as part of that conversation?
UNICEF's 2026 Children's Climate Risk Report found that 1.1 billion children are exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards.
These include extreme heat, drought, flooding, wildfires, coastal flooding and tropical storms.
More than 171 million students around the world had their schooling disrupted by climate-related hazards in 2025.
Imagine being a child whose school is closed because of flooding, whose family has to evacuate because of wildfires, or whose community is struggling to find clean drinking water.
And imagine being a teenager who understands that these problems aren't going away when they graduate.
Climate anxiety is real. UNICEF has spoken with mental health experts about the fear, helplessness and uncertainty young people experience when they worry about the future of the planet.
We shouldn't dismiss those feelings as children being dramatic.
Perhaps they are paying attention.
Perhaps they are asking questions that adults have avoided for too long.
british columbia: what is happening in our own backyard?
We live in a beautiful province.
Rainforests, mountains, rivers, lakes, coastlines, salmon streams and extraordinary biodiversity.
But British Columbia has some difficult environmental decisions ahead.
1. Wildfires
Canada's 2026 wildfire season has burned approximately 4.5 million hectares across the country, with more than 5,400 fires reported.
British Columbia was among the regions particularly affected.
More than 33,750 people across Canada were forced from their homes this season, including thousands from First Nations communities.
These aren't just statistics. They represent families, homes, wildlife, forests, livelihoods and communities.
2. Old-growth forests
The future of old-growth forests remains a major concern.
On Vancouver Island, communities and conservationists continue to fight over logging in some of the last remaining productive old-growth forests.
The Fairy Creek watershed is one example.
These forests aren't simply collections of valuable timber. They are complex ecosystems, carbon stores and habitat for countless species.
They also hold deep cultural significance for Indigenous communities.
We need to ask whether short-term economic benefits are worth losing ecosystems that took centuries to develop.
3. LNG and industrial expansion
In September, British Columbia approved an environmental assessment certificate for the Tilbury Phase 2 LNG expansion in Delta.
The project still requires further permitting.
The province points to employment, economic activity and energy security. Environmental questions include greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, wildlife, water and impacts on neighbouring communities and First Nations.
We need to be able to discuss both the economic arguments and the environmental consequences.
4. Water and salmon
Our rivers and watersheds are under pressure from changing rainfall patterns, drought, development, industrial activity and warmer temperatures.
Salmon depend on healthy rivers and streams.
When water temperatures rise or streams become too shallow, fish populations face additional stress.
Protecting water means protecting entire ecosystems, not simply ensuring that people have water coming out of their taps.
canada: what does our environmental record look like?
Canada likes to present itself as a country with vast natural resources and a commitment to environmental protection.
But we need to look at the numbers.
According to Canada's 2026 National Inventory Report, our greenhouse gas emissions in 2024 were approximately 685 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The oil and gas sector accounted for 30% of Canada's emissions.
Transportation accounted for another 22%.
There has been progress in some areas, including reductions in electricity-sector emissions since coal-fired electricity was phased out in many parts of the country.
But oil and gas emissions have increased compared with 2005.
This is where we need honest conversations about the direction Canada is taking.
We cannot keep talking about climate commitments while ignoring the emissions associated with expanding fossil fuel production.
We also need to consider Indigenous rights, land stewardship, food security, biodiversity and the communities that bear the consequences of industrial development.
mexico: another country, many of the same challenges
I have a personal connection to Mexico, particularly Oaxaca.
I've been travelling there since 1997, and I have seen how much the country means to the people who live there.
But Mexico is facing serious environmental pressures too.
Water is becoming a major issue.
In October 2026, reports from Mexico's drought monitoring system showed that 12.7% of the country was experiencing moderate to severe drought, compared with 7.5% at the same time last year.
Oaxaca was among the states affected.
There has also been a troubling water-quality crisis in Guadalajara.
Residents have reported foul-smelling, discoloured tap water. Testing has raised concerns about contamination, including bacteria and potentially harmful substances.
People have taken to the streets demanding safe drinking water and accountability.
In the Cholula Valley, communities are also fighting to protect rivers, springs and groundwater.
Some residents have seen rivers disappear, wells decline and water become increasingly difficult to access.
These are reminders that water isn't an unlimited resource.
Mexico is also dealing with pressures from tourism, urban expansion, agriculture, deforestation, waste disposal and development along its coastlines.
When I return to Oaxaca, I want to pay attention to these issues.
Tourism can bring employment and income, but development needs to consider the people who live there, the water they depend on and the ecosystems that make these places special.
and what is happening around the world?
This isn't a Canadian problem or a Mexican problem.
It is a global problem.
Across the world:
- Communities are dealing with increasingly destructive floods and storms.
- Extreme heat is affecting people's health, agriculture and ability to work.
- Drought is threatening food production and drinking water.
- Forests are being cleared for agriculture, development and resource extraction.
- Oceans are dealing with warming waters, pollution, plastic waste and biodiversity loss.
- Wildlife habitats are disappearing, putting more species at risk.
- Island communities face rising seas and coastal erosion.
And there is another issue we need to start discussing more openly.
the environmental cost of artificial intelligence
We've been talking about AI and who controls it.
But there is another side to this technology.
AI doesn't exist in some magical cloud.
It requires enormous physical infrastructure.
Data centres, computer chips, cooling systems, electricity, water, land and minerals.
A 2026 report from the United Nations University examined the environmental costs of artificial intelligence, including its carbon, water and land footprints.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe has also warned about the growing electricity demands of data centres.
Global data-centre electricity consumption is projected to rise from approximately 485 terawatt-hours in 2025 to 950 terawatt-hours by 2030.
That's an enormous increase.
We need to ask:
- Where will all this electricity come from?
- How much water will be required to cool these facilities?
- Where will the minerals for computer chips and equipment come from?
- What happens to electronic waste when equipment becomes obsolete?
- Who decides whether a community should sacrifice land and resources for another data centre?
- Are the environmental costs being properly measured and disclosed?
AI may have useful applications in science, conservation, medicine and climate research.
But we need to make sure the technology doesn't create another environmental problem while promising to solve others.
what can we do differently?
I don't believe the answer is to stop all development, reject technology or expect people to return to living without modern conveniences.
But I do believe we need to rethink what progress actually means.
Is progress measured by how much money an industry makes?
How many buildings we construct?
How much oil, gas, timber or electricity we produce?
How many products we consume?
Or should we also measure progress by the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the health of our forests, the survival of wildlife and the opportunities we leave for future generations?
We need:
- Stronger protection for old-growth forests and biodiversity.
- Clean, accessible drinking water.
- Better public transportation and less dependence on fossil fuels.
- Responsible development and meaningful Indigenous participation in decisions affecting their lands.
- Greater investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
- Better protection of oceans, rivers and coastal ecosystems.
- Transparency around the environmental costs of data centres and emerging technologies.
- Environmental education that encourages children to participate rather than simply fear the future.
- Governments that are accountable for the promises they make.
And we need to listen to young people.
ten questions we should all be asking
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Why are children having to take governments to court to protect their future?
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If we know what causes climate change, why are we still expanding activities that increase greenhouse gas emissions?
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Who benefits financially from the destruction or exploitation of natural resources?
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How do we balance jobs and economic development with the protection of ecosystems?
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Why do communities have to fight for clean drinking water when water is essential to life?
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What happens to children growing up with repeated wildfires, floods, extreme heat and environmental uncertainty?
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Are we protecting Indigenous knowledge, rights and traditional stewardship practices when making decisions about land and water?
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How much environmental damage are we willing to accept in the name of technological progress?
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What kind of world will today's children inherit if we continue making decisions based on short-term profits?
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And perhaps the hardest question: If we already know many of the solutions, why aren't we moving faster?
one last thought
I don't want children growing up believing that the future is something they should be afraid of.
I want them to have clean rivers to swim in, forests to explore, oceans full of life, safe communities, good food and the freedom to imagine a future without constantly worrying about whether the planet will remain habitable.
I want them to have opportunities we may not have had.
And I want them to know that adults were paying attention.
We cannot undo every mistake made by previous generations. But we can make different decisions today.
The children taking Canada to court are asking us to consider what our responsibilities are.
Maybe we should stop treating their concerns as an inconvenience and start treating them as an important part of the conversation.
We don't own this planet. We are temporary residents, and we have a responsibility to leave something worth inheriting.
The next generation shouldn't have to spend its childhood fighting us for a future.
To be continued: I want to revisit some of the environmental themes in my own books when I get to Mexico. I need to reread them first. Sometimes it's worth going back to our own words and asking whether the things we worried about years ago are becoming the reality we're living with today.
Ecojustice – Four Canadian youth-led climate cases — other Canadian youth lawsuits.
UNICEF – Children's Climate Risk Report 2026.
UNICEF – 171 million students affected by climate hazards.
Government of Canada – 2026 wildfire season update.
The Tyee – What will happen to BC's old growth?.
Canada's 2026 greenhouse gas inventory.
Reuters – Guadalajara's water crisis.
Washington Post – Mexico's drying rivers and polluted wells.
United Nations University – Environmental cost of AI.
