Forgotten Planet: How a Group of Kids Restored My Faith in Humanity

Illustration by Julia Kerrison: @Juliakerrison

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The Story of Forgotten Planet: A Poetry Anthology

You’ve seen it on the news. You’ve seen it in the media. You’ve probably noticed it cropping up in some of Netflix's newest shows.

The climate crisis is affecting us all, and we're running out of time to stop it.

But it's not all bad news. There are countless people across the planet making a real difference, devoting their time to raising awareness and making a change. As the movement gains momentum, it is our youngest generations that have begun leading the way, and they're making headlines worldwide.

During the first Youth Strike for Climate protests in March 2019, 1 million children worldwide took part. In September 2019, that figure skyrocketed, with 1 million children protesting in New York city alone. Our youth are becoming increasingly engaged in these issues, and quite rightly. They will soon be inheriting this planet from us, and we aren’t doing the best job of keeping it safe.

Plastic pollution, rising sea levels, rainforests on fire. Our planet is wounded. It needs time to recover. It needs for us to change.

Yet despite the incredible enthusiasm of our youth, certain individuals still stand in their way.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds responded to the youth strikes with the statement: ‘let me be clear, missing class won’t do a thing to help the environment; all they will do is create extra work for teachers.’ The fact that the head of the education system wants to suppress their enthusiasm for a better world is quite terrifying to comprehend.

With such opposition, we wanted to provide another platform for our youth to have their voices heard. A place where people can appreciate their thoughts and feelings from the comfort of their homes, without worrying about them missing school — or indeed using their strikes as momentum against them.

And so, Forgotten Planet began.

“Forgotten Planet is a collaborative poetry anthology written by both adults and children discussing climate change and endangered species.”

As part of our final year as Creative Writing students, my writing partner Katy and I hosted an environmental poetry workshop in a Falmouth primary school.

With the rise of Eco-anxiety affecting people worldwide, we wanted to provide an environment for these young people to be honest about their thoughts and feelings without being judged. We wanted to show them they can make a difference, and even change the way humans perceive the world. One way to do that was through the power of creative writing.

Using various pedagogical practices, we encouraged a group of 9-11 year olds to talk about the Climate Crisis in a safe space; sharing knowledge about this worldwide atrocity, and their emotive responses. Amazingly, they seemed to know more than we did.

They spoke to us of deforestation, over-fishing, and the poaching trade. They described to us the damaging effects of palm oil, and the impact of climate change on animals and indigenous people with harrowing emotion. One child even informed us of the threat of micro-plastics polluting London’s air; something I had never heard of before.

The children were furious about the impact of human destruction, and their informed, heart-felt contributions offered us hope for the future of our planet.

After this discussion, we split them into groups and encouraged them to translate their feelings into poetry. There was a wonderful mix of confident writers and pupils who had never written poetry before, and the results were astounding. As Koch writes: ‘Children have a natural talent for writing poetry and anyone who teaches them should know that.’[1] The children used literary techniques without being told what they were or how to implement them, and their voices were impassioned and unique.

During writing, I noticed that one child had a blank page. When I enquired, she told me she had never written poetry before. I wanted to keep the children’s work as authentic as possible, acting only as encouragement rather than instructing them on poetic content. Koch also states that: ‘The child’s poem should be all his own.’[1] Therefore, I asked her how climate change made her feel. She said: ‘Climate changes kills animals. It makes me feel sad.’

I suggested that she write her answer as the beginning of her poem and left her to continue alone. The result is below:

By encouraging her to draw on her feelings, she produced a poem filled with passion and anger, showing that the quietest voices can be loud and inspiring given the right opportunity.

Another girl wrote us an extremely visual poem, which she sang to the class:

I was astonished at the level of the emotive and literary content; the repetition of ‘fire’ and ‘plastic’, and the list of ways to save the planet.

Another girl’s use of poetic devices – metaphor, repetition, personification – left me in awe:

Despite their varying abilities, by the end of the session, each child had written at least one poem - with some writing 2 or 3. We then asked the children to read their poems aloud. This plenary session is essential in provoking ‘useful discussion, exploration and extension’ and ‘to consolidate and deepen understanding.’[3] I hoped that this session would encourage the children to continue the discussion outside of the workshop, and it did.

Speaking to parents after this journey, we realised the true impact of our project. The children were still talking about it weeks later; telling their friends and family that they wanted to keep on writing, in particular about the climate crisis. It's more than we could have ever asked for.

It’s easy for some people to disregard children, because they are small, and haven’t been on this planet as long as the rest of us. But the amazing thing is ,  they have this unrelenting compassion and straightforward way of thinking that makes you want to change, to be better, for them.

Here are just a couple of questions we were asked during the workshop:

‘Why do people pollute when they know it’s bad for the world?’

‘Why do companies still make plastic packaging when it causes so much damage?’

‘Why don’t people care about the planet?’

I didn’t have the answers for these kids, but they did offer me something - hope, and motivation to continue fighting for a better world.

We’re at a crucial point in our time here as humans, and we can choose to change, or to destroy this planet we call home.

But these engaged kids are so incredibly inspiring, and filled with a passion for a more sustainable Earth, that I know things are going to be okay again, one day.

Thank you, to the primary school children from Falmouth for your beautiful contributions, and to illustrator Julia Kerrison for her wonderful artwork.

If you would like to learn more about our journey check out our social media (below) or look at the 'Store' part of my website to grab a copy.

Instagram: @forgottenplanetpoetry

Twitter: @poetryforgotten

Email: forgottenplanetpoetry@gmail.com