One way to feel like a responsible citizen of the planet is to raise environmentally conscious children and/or influence the children close to you. Here are a few things we practice in my home:
Teaching my children to respect all animals and nature by never killing bugs in or outside the house. We always make an effort to either transfer them out of the house with a piece of paper or let them be. When I hear shouts of, “kill it mommy!” I teach my children to respect the life of all beings. When we are playing outdoors, I pick up worms and bugs and place them in their hands. I try to teach them not to fear or dominate other living creatures, to be gentle with life. When they make comments about an animal/insect’s appearance, “Ehew he’s ugly”, I teach them that beauty is relative and some other animal on the planet is attracted to it. Then I throw in, “Look at your ears, the caterpillar probably thinks they’re funny looking”.
Children will learn to respect the land if we teach them the importance of picking up litter. We allow plants and flowers to live instead of picking them or cutting them down. This is hard when you have a child who always wants to give you picked flowers. I just say “thank you”, and remind them that I can only enjoy them for a short time due to fact that it will soon wilt and die. When we are on an outing, and I can stop the picking before hand, I say… “I think we should let the flowers live and allow other people to enjoy them”. I believe this lesson teaches them to value the life of plants and the importance of keeping their habitats clean.
Conservation is something children can easily help out with at home. You can teach them to conserve water by turning off the faucet while brushing teeth, letting two small children share a bath, and remind them to turn off lights and the television when not in use.
Recycle, recycle, recycle… allow them to take part in this process at home. Have an extra garbage receptacle or bag for your recyclables and have your children help with sorting. Reuse zip-lock bags and containers from take-out restaurants. Have them give their out-grown clothing to a Goodwill or Salvation Army.
The biggest thing we can do to show our children how to be environmentally responsible, is to practice what we preach – being examples of positive planetary citizens ourselves. Consistency with these behaviors and lessons like the ones above will produce eco-friendly offspring 
