Wall-e, Hollywood and environmentalism.

I have just enjoyed Wall-e from Disney Pixar, with my family. What I particularly enjoyed was the underlying message of the film. You see, more than anything else, Wall-e is a comment on the state of the world today.

Children get their education best when they least notice it. A cinema is a pretty good place to educate children on important issues. Thus, I would like to congratulate Hollywood and Disney Pixar in particular, for Wall-e.

I am not about to spoil the film, but I can say this: it preaches a very clear message about the perils of not caring for the environment, of allowing Man to become successively more lazy and dependent on machines and on the probable future of Earth and Man if we continue to do and be as we are. These are important issues for children to confront and understand so that, when they become adults, they might live in a way which does not contribute to these problems.

I would urge every parent to bring their children to see Wall-e, even very young children will be able to understand the film - and let them imbibe the message it has, for the state of our world today. Clearly, the film is an extensive comment on the nature of, in particular, modern America and where not only is it ahead, but where it presently already is. In a way, the film is quite chilling in what it predicts, but is so without making the audience too uncomfortable. In fact, I found myself laughing at things I shouldn't really have been laughing at, while being made aware of how awful such a situation actually would be.

So, if you want your children to grow up environmentally aware, active and protective, I think Wall-e is a good place to begin their education in what will happen if nothing is done.

See it.

Watching the film gave me hope that Hollywood - often seen as an evil force in the world - could actually help the future development of the world by producing responsible films that educate the audience on important matters such as environmentalism and the likely future of Man if we don't change our ways. They serve as powerful warnings and are more likely to be heeded since they won't be perceived as lectures.

Well done, Disney Pixar...I hope to see more of such films, for the future adults of tomorrow to learn from.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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A world without the smell of flowers

There is much beauty in the world. Yet, this beauty may not endure. The world of my youth, is not the world of today - and so it shall be for my children, too. The natural world is slowly fading away.

Researchers at the University of Virginia have uncovered a startling and rather disturbing phenomenon: flowers are losing their smell.

All of us have, at one time or another, enjoyed the enchanting aroma of flowers on a summer's day. We may have walked in fields amidst their multi-coloured splendour - yet, a walk in such a field today is not what it once was. These researchers have calculated that the scent of flowers would have wafted some 1,000 to 1,200 metres in the 1800s. Today, in the modern world, flower scent has a range of just 200 to 300 metres in the vicinity of cities.

What is happening? Well the scent molecules are interacting with air pollutants such as ozone and being neutralized: they literally no longer smell anymore.

Why should we be concerned? Well, apart from dulling one of the sensory experiences of the beauty of nature - this does something more: it makes it difficult for bees to find their food. When flowers no longer smell as they used to, bees must search longer and further to find them, relying more on sight. This is not easy - and so they starve. Bee populations in places as far apart as California and the Netherlands are in decline.

Why does this matter? Well, bees are pollinators of flowers. If they can't find the flowers, they won't find food - but also the flowers won't be pollinated - result: no more flowers.

Here we can see how pollution has effects far beyond what we might expect. It leads directly to the decline of bees and flowers alike. We are suffocating the natural world.

I usually write about giftedness - but I feel, at times, a need to write about the environment. It is not really off-topic for one clear reason: anyone who has young children needs to think about the future world they will live in. What kind of world will they have to enjoy or endure? The signs are not looking good.

Do what you can, when you can, to preserve the environment: make it one of your regular considerations. If enough people think about it, perhaps we can do something collectively, to improve it.

As for the flowers: it seems sad that children now live in a world in which not even the flowers smell as they used to. They will not have the sensory memories that prior generations enjoyed of simply witnessing the natural world in its multi-sensory splendour: it is fading and dying all around us.

I only hope that there is time to intervene, before it is too late. I only hope that there is time for nature to recover from what we are doing to it.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)