Weather or not, we're doomed...children. 

Punctuation, Marks: As our grade school grammar teachers emphasized, its all about punctuation: where you place commas, questions marks, exclamations, semi-colons; colons. Yes, it's all in support of proper grammar and, of course, for effect.  As in the difference between "Whether or not, we're doomed...children" and "Whether or not we're doomed children..." The first reflecting a fait accompli, the latter some equivocation. It's also, then, how we present information to our children and students of all ages, in order to punctuate their consciousness, make a mark on their perspective regarding the world around them, to make them more aware, even scared...whether it's about the ______ wave of COVID or the ongoing 'discussion' -- if you can call it that as it's less often in the form of Q&A than a monologue, even an indoctrination, whether it appears as an article in their social media or what passes as "current events" in the classroom, regarding global warming, climate change... 

Climate, Control: As articles detailing the "unprecedented" extremes of our weather patterns today continue to permeate the mainstream press and the significant role humanity has played in what's often now characterized as irreversible, incontrovertible evidence (that we're doomed) has also seeped into the collective consciousness of the adult world, it's of little surprise that in a survey of children just released (and summarized as I was listening to "World News" this morning while already having worked up a sweat without a rise in temps), there is a corresponding meteoric rise in children's collective fears for their/our future, and expressions of anxiety and depression that inevitably accompany such daunting prospects. Primary hallmarks of both anxiety and depression are feelings of helplessness and powerlessness, that in turn give rise to hopelessness. A key feature in treatment strategies trying to mitigate such feelings and the general condition is the identification and pursuance of opportunities to take control, make a difference. If I was a youngster these days reading such articles and/or watching adults behaving in such a way that conveys "We're doomed!" and I sustained attention long enough to catch the specific implications, one of the simplest conclusions, a grand sweeping solution...is to reduce population, at least the rate with which people are procreating, adding to this global problem. Plus, why would I want to bring a helpless infant into such a mess? No surprise, then, then a growing number (4 out of 10 in the survey mentioned) indicate they probably won't have children in the future...

Children, Our Future: If full disclosure was really the goal, if we really wanted to scare our little ones before tucking them into bed regarding their prospects in the future, we'd read them a copy of the current United States budget proposals, written by the brave men and women in Congress and actively supported as critical to the lives of our children by the current person residing in the White House...for mathematical accuracy over grammar here, we'd have to let them know what debt load they and many generations into the future are going to carry due to our collective complicity in continuing to pass spending bills that we, us responsible adults who are trying to teach our children about responsible stewardship, continue to pass without the cash to fund them, all the while merrily borrowing from future generations... 

Generations, Generating: Speaking of future generations, if the ones that are living are to have any stability in our financial future, to have a sufficient number of tax payers to pay into Social Security and other 'social' programs, we should have a keen awareness of any factors that may lead the generations to come think of 'depopulating'...we've already seen this happening elsewhere -- watch and listen to the news, you'll find out. And if you just bother to do the math. 

Weather, Whether or not, it's on us, adults: Let's show them what we're made of; let's give them hope.