Get \’em young

And indoctrinate them:

And then, of course, there is school. Miss White is Rosa\’s year one teacher at St Peter & St Paul\’s RC Primary School. In the past year, I have noticed Rosa has begun to recycle and energy-save and spout eco policy with exquisite fervour and zealotry. In the past six months I have been confronted by Rosa, who\’s like a recalcitrant, chubby-cheeked mayoress of an eco-town, over the following issues: energy-saving light bulbs (I use them in hallways but not in rooms where I actually want light instead of that jaundiced low-energy syrup); paper recycling; turning off the tap when I brush my teeth; carrier bags. And plane journeys.

I have begun to feel there are larger forces at work. I suspect I am a pawn in a covert re-education programme. I fear "pester power" is being organised to leverage pro-environmental awareness in parents – we are being bullied by a generation of pint-sized "eco-worriers". A friend of mine who agonised about remaining anonymous for fear of upsetting her son\’s school told me how, as part of environmental awareness, all the children in her boy\’s class had their lunch boxes inspected for high food-miles products and non-recyclable packaging. I know a Brixton parent concerned about her son\’s school\’s walk-to-school initiative because it is dangerous. I know a father who was apoplectic when his daughter was asked by a teacher to account for the carbon footprint arising from two foreign holidays.

All rather Jesuit really, isn\’t it?