In 1990 I produced a video for NRCan (National Resources Canada) specifically targeted to grade school children to improve the energy efficiency of the family home. If things look a bit weird in the video it is because the camera was always at the height of the eyes of a grade school kid – you see under the tables, not over them. The brilliant hero of the video is a black & white cat, who teaches the kid, who teaches his parents. The message itself is still valid today.
The quality of the image is not great as this was in the day of VHS tapes, and technically I am not supposed to publish this, which belongs to the Canadian government, but over 30 years later I made a digital copy from a VHS tape, pardon me Mr. Government.
The real reason I am showing it is to illustrate how knowledge can get into a family from its youngest members. This video was sent to grade schools all across Canada and the interesting feedback was that at the next parent/teacher meeting many parents asked: “What did you teach my kids?” It had an impact, which tells me we should not ignore this avenue for changing ingrained non-ecological habits.
Yes, that is me 35 years ago, and my wife who has doubled her age since then, but she still looks great! My son was the animator who gave birth to the cat, and much later moved on to bigger challenges to help animate Gollum in the Lord of the Rings. Click below for either English or French.
