once upon a time — come close, kids

 

once upon a time — come close, kids

Once upon a time...

Come close, kids.

There's a sad story I need to tell you.

It's a true story.

And I'm telling you because it could happen again — maybe sooner than we would like to think.

I don't want to frighten you.

I want you to know.

Because when we know what happened before, we have a better chance of preparing, protecting ourselves and the people we love, and protecting our whole world family as much as we possibly can.

So get yourself a cup of tea.

Grab a cookie.

And maybe a tissue.

Because this one is a little sad.

Then we'll talk about what we can do.

Once upon a time, in the 1870s...

There was a world without satellites.

No weather apps.

No phones buzzing with emergency alerts.

No computers watching the oceans.

People had to look at the sky, the rivers, the crops and the animals — and try to understand what the changing world was telling them.

And then something extraordinary happened.

The oceans changed.

The atmosphere changed.

The weather changed.

And in 1877–78, an extraordinarily powerful El Niño became part of a much larger climate story.

What followed was one of the most devastating climate-related food crises in modern history.

People didn't just experience bad weather.

They experienced hunger.

And millions of people lost their lives.

Now come a little closer, because here's where this old story becomes important to us...

It didn't stay on the other side of the world.

The climate doesn't respect borders.

Drought in one place can affect food somewhere else.

Floods can destroy farms.

Failed harvests can send food prices soaring.

And when people can no longer survive where they are, they move.

They look for somewhere safe.

Somewhere with water.

Somewhere with food.

Somewhere with people willing to help.

And that brings our old story home...

To **Victoria.

To Seattle.

To the Fraser Valley.

To the place that would soon become Vancouver.

And to Ottawa.**

Because while Vancouver wasn't yet a city, the Fraser River was already showing people what it could do.

In 1879, after the terrible years that had come before, the Fraser rose dramatically again.

The Sumas area flooded.

Farmland was damaged.

A bridge was swept away.

People watched water take pieces of their livelihoods away.

Imagine standing there without a weather radar.

Without a phone.

Without an emergency notification.

Just watching the river rise.

And wondering:

How high is it going to go?

That's the part of the story I want us to remember.

Not because I think history is going to repeat itself exactly.

It won't.

But because nature has a memory longer than ours.

And today we're watching another very strong El Niño develop.

So this time, perhaps we can do something the people of the 1870s couldn't.

We can look backward.

We can look around.

And we can prepare.

Not with panic.

With love.

For ourselves.

For our neighbours.

For farmers.

For children.

For elders.

For people who have nowhere safe to go.

For people on the other side of the world.

For our whole world family.

Because that's what this story is really about.

Not fear.

Preparation.

And maybe, if we're smart enough...

the next generation won't have to tell this story as a tragedy.

Maybe they'll tell it as the story of the time humanity saw the warning signs...

and actually listened.

Reflective Questions

Teachers:

What are you teaching the next generation about surviving and caring for a changing world — beyond the textbook?

Students:

2. What can you learn and do now so you're not helpless when your community faces a crisis?

Politicians:

3. If you know climate disruption can threaten food, housing and safety, what are you actually doing to prepare your community — and where is the plan?

Nurses:

4. When the next emergency overwhelms the healthcare system, who will care for the people who have nowhere else to turn — and are you prepared?

Doctors:

5. Are you treating climate-related illness and disaster as something that is already affecting human health, or are we still waiting for the crisis to become impossible to ignore?

Farmers:

6. If drought, flooding or extreme weather threatens your harvest, what can we do now to protect the food supply?

Scientists:

7. What are you seeing that ordinary people need to understand — and what warning are we failing to hear?

Rockstars & movie stars:

8. You have millions of people listening to you. What are you going to use that voice for when the message could actually save lives?

Business leaders:

9. When the next climate emergency comes, will your priority be protecting people and communities — or protecting profits?

All of us:

10. When history looks back at this moment, will it say we knew the warning signs and acted — or that we knew and did nothing?