Saturday, September 12, 2015

connect the dots: part 1

One of my daughters attended Space Camp week at Science City.

At pick up there is a line of cars stretched out of the parking lot, waiting for the gates to the exclusive, campers-only parking lot to open. The drivers idle in front of Science City, waiting for their science-enriched progeny to emerge.

Science City, a place meant to enhance one’s understanding of science, allows idling in its parking lot even though the science is clear on the link between burning fossil fuels and climate change. They even have an interactive display on climate change inside the overly air-conditioned building.

Maybe idling doesn’t count this week because it is not ENERGY week.

After the gates open, people exit their cars, some left idling, and stand in line to get their kids. I wonder how many of these kids have asthma and allergies. But it isn’t AIR POLLUTION week so maybe the kids have a week’s reprieve from respiratory ailments.

I notice a number of overweight parents and kids who through masterful idling are lucky enough to get the closest parking spots. But it isn’t HEALTH week so maybe parking at the adjacent lot and exerting oneself 20 meters, instead of idling, isn’t an option.

A take away from Space Camp? Astronauts’ favorite candy is M & M’s because they like to toss the melt-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hand morsels into the gravity free setting and catch them in their astronaut mouths as they float by.

My daughter also got to take away some free advertising for Science City in the forms of a t-shirt, a reusable bag and a plastic water bottle.

Clearly it wasn’t WATER CYCLE week at Science City. If it was, they would have learned the water footprint of manufacturing t-shirts (over 700 gallons of water per shirt).

Nor was it ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT week or they would have learned that manufacturing reusable bags is sometimes actually worse for the planet than single use disposable plastic bags.

Shall we even consider the destined-for-the-dump crap reusable plastic water bottle that’s made from a nonrenewable resource and leaches chemicals into water?

Ok, ok. I’ll be thankful they didn’t offer bottled water.

But when is CONNECT THE DOTS camp?


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