It is truly one of the greatest things in life to be a father. Also, as my son Oliver is getting older, getting smarter, and opening his mind, it is becoming harder and harder to be a dad. He watches and reads the news about disasters, wars, climate change, and asks questions. Some of these questions I can’t even answer. Like how did we get here? When was the time when we started to prioritize ideology, money, politics over life, human lives and quality of life? Did we start it at the Industrial Revolution? Or did we start it when the first politician was corrupted by big corp? Or did we start to ignore human lives and environmental factors with the rise of populism? Or should I go back further in history? Did the Pharaohs care about environmental factors when they got the pyramids built in ancient Egypt? I can answer the latter: they did, because they feared nature; they even moved construction sites and routes because of one Scarabaeus crossing it. When did we forget about respecting nature, which basically gives us our home and all the foundation for our economies? So what should I tell Oliver?

These thoughts make me troubled sometimes when I look at my son. What kind of world have we given them to grow up in? They grow up on a war- and disaster-torn planet where two-thirds of the population is in the constant struggle to get along or to survive, while the developed part is getting more and more stressed and depressed. And kids know and feel; they know everything. One of the most fulfilling parts of advocating for climate change is when I have the chance to talk to kids in schools all over the world. They are aware of what’s happening and they have strong opinions. They grow up with a whole new mindset, and they give me hope. A hope that they will not compromise in changing which is key to survival and they will have no mercy on any old system which stands in their way. Why? Because they want to live, not just survive. While we are at it: who the fuck came up with the “it is what it is” attitude?

And how do I personally cope with all this as a father? My choice is travel; I’m trying to show my son the world: the different cultures, religions, traditions, history and nature. It works. Let me give you an example: last year we were in Tanzania in the summer, and one night we slept in a lodge near the Ngorongoro Crater, the so-called “cradle of life”. It was Oliver’s birthday, so the lodge prepared a cake and a little singing and dancing for him. The kids from the small village around were peeking through the fence.  My son stood up at the end and said, “Thank you, and I would like to share this cake with the kids beyond the fence, because they probably never had their birthdays celebrated this way”. So that happened. And as I was standing there with tears in my eyes, looking at these kids eating cake with no common language or no common cultural roots, just little humans enjoying dessert together, I felt that there is hope for humanity, because that is the very thing missing from our world now: empathy. Yes, Elon, you heard that right: empathy.