Nicola Patrick: Too much news for a 7-year-old

SHOCKING NEWS: Helicopters battle the fires around Christchurch where one pilot died last week.

I DON'T usually watch the TV news live anymore. I'm a news addict, but mostly get my fix via social media.

But in this past week I turned it on at 6pm to see the latest on the Christchurch fires - with friends and family down there, it was more than morbid curiosity.

Mr Seven joined in and he was fascinated. The fire captured him, but then he heard the tragic news of the death of the helicopter pilot fighting the fire. He was shocked and kept asking: "Has he really died?"

I was shocked, too - I realised that I had been sheltering him from the news.

I felt quite anxious about what the next item might be, when - sure enough - it was about a sexual assault, which was followed by a lost 5-year-old girl, prompting lots of questions. I scrambled for the remote to switch channels.

Seven is still too young to face the horrors of the world shown in TV soundbites, isn't it? How much explaining of the fighting going on around the world is necessary when your primary understanding of war is through Lego?

But when is the right age? I don't want to raise children who are ignorant of what's happening in the world.

There is, of course, good news to be found, like the recent announcement that the giant panda is officially off the endangered species list - what will World Wildlife Fund do for its logo now?

This glimmer was unfortunately offset by the devastating loss of hundreds of pilot whales that stranded in Golden Bay. Mr Seven was very upset by this, too.

Whether you're still a child or a fully-fledged adult, staying positive - or at least optimistic - in the light of the global challenges is not easy.

The fires in Canterbury - and Hawke's Bay - come at a time when Australia is facing huge heat waves. They had fruit bats dropping dead. And the latest reporting from the North and South Poles is that they have record low ice coverage for this time of the year.

I hosted a climate change event with a difference this week as part of the Women's Network La Fiesta programme. It featured former mayor Annette Main, wetlands protector Tanea Tangaroa, teacher Rachel Plank and author Katherine Dewar.

We wanted to apply a different lens to the critical issue of climate change - to look at how the arts, education and living alongside a river helps us understand our world.

Entitled The Flood, the gathering drew on our experience in Whanganui of increasing heavy rain and facing up to the reality we are likely to experience even larger floods in the future.

Climate change also got a mention in evidence for the hearings into Trans-Tasman Resources' application to mine the seabed off Patea. A submitter made the point that climate change has taught us ecosystems are more vulnerable than once thought - and some change may be irreversible, whether its shrinking ice shelves, dying coral reefs, or fruit bats dropping out of trees.

I'll be speaking to my own submission opposing the mining at the Environmental Protection Agency hearings in New Plymouth next week. My concerns are around the uncertainty and massive reliance on modelling in the proposal.

I'm hopeful this legal guidance for the EPA will carry weight with the decision-makers: "If ... the information available is uncertain or inadequate, the EPA must favour caution and environmental protection."

I don't envy them - there's so much evidence to hear - but a precautionary approach must apply - there is no Planet B.

It's our responsibility to leave the planet in a better condition for our children and I can't see how excavating 50 million tonnes of the seabed, 11 metres deep, each year for 35 years over 65 square kilometres, is going to do that.

As American Terri Swearingen says: "We are living on the planet as if we have another one to go to."

■Nicola Patrick is a Horizons regional councillor, a Sustainable Whanganui trustee and works for Te Kaahui o Rauru. A mother of two boys, she has a science degree and is a Green Party member.