Jolena threw her books and backpack up on the wicker trunk the dolls used for a coffee table in front of the daybed in the workroom. Her stuff made a big thunk!
Mandy could tell Jolena was upset. She tried to make her face look concerned. "What's the matter," she asked the younger doll.
Jolena climbed up onto the daybed and moved one of her braids away from her face. "Being on the Doll Ski Team is giving me a bigger foot," she said, "but I don't want to have to give up skiing!"
Mandy looked down at Jolena's feet. They looked about the same to her, of course Jolena was wearing shoes. "Do your shoes pinch?"
"It isn't that kind of foot," Jolena told her.
Maybe you should start at the beginning," Mandy suggested, as she took off her glasses and moved her knitting aside. "Tell me what this is about."
"Well," Jolena began, "Maryanne told me that being on the Doll Ski Team is giving me a bigger footprint, and that's a bad thing. How big your footprint is depends on how big your foot is, right?"
Mandy agreed that it was true. Dolls have much smaller feet than most human people, so if their feet leave marks, or footprints, when they walk along the trail, those footprints are very small. If your footprint is bigger, is means your feet are bigger, and although children grow, dolls don't. Mandy was confused. "Did she say anything else about your footprint?" Mandy asked. "Usually, when someone talks about a footprint, they talk about more than one. Dolls and people have two feet. Why would one footprint be bad but not your footprints."
"Maryanne told me that riding to ski practice in a car and flying to competitions was giving me a bigger footprint," Jolena explained.
"That must mean my foot is getting bigger, right?," Jolena asked. "She said that was a bad thing and it was hurting the earth."
Something began to dawn on Mandy. Her face cleared, or it would have if she could have really made her face look different. "I think I know what she meant," she said. "Did she say it was your carbon (KAR-bun) footprint?"
"Yes!" Jolena exclaimed. "I guess I forgot about the carbon part."
"Our carbon footprint," Mandy explained, "is how much we each change the earth's atmosphere by what we do. It's called that, because a footprint is what we leave behind when we walk, so our carbon footprint is the amount of extra carbon we leave behind in the air by the things we do." "
"Carbon is an element," Mandy continued. "Elements are the basic things everything in the universe is made of. Carbon is in some different kinds of gases in the air. They are called greenhouse gases. I learned about it in my chemistry class."
"You mean," Jolena asked "like a greenhouse that's used to keep plants warm when the weather is too cool? I thought they just had regular air inside."
"Yes," Mandy said, "They do. What we call greenhouse gases, though, are gases in our atmosphere," she explained, "that act like the glass of a greenhouse. They let the sun in in the daytime, but they hold it and protect us from freezing at night when the sun isn't shining where we are."
"The greenhouse gases have to be balanced, though," Mandy said. "If there is too much, our atmosphere can get too hot. If there isn't enough, it will be too cold."
"We're starting to have too much carbon gases in our air," Mandy continued. "It's starting to cause more bad weather, like blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts and wildfires. The polar ice caps are melting, and that makes the sea level rise."
"I know what a blizzard is," Jolena said, "because I ski in the snow. When there's a blizzard there's too much snow all at once, and everything stops," she went on slowly.
"I remember that a hurricane is a big storm," Jolena continued. "Veronika couldn't go on a cruise once because of a hurricane. It tore up houses and flooded streets. It was dangerous to be on the ocean, so the cruise was cancelled. She was disappointed, but she stayed safe."
Jolena thought while Mandy nodded her agreement and waited to see what else Jolena would say.
"Yes," Mandy agreed when Jolena stayed silent. "A hurricane starts on the earth where it's warmest over the ocean, around the equator (ee-KWAY-ter). That's the part farthest from the poles. The hurricane spins around in a circle, like bathwater going down the drain, and the spinning storm moves toward the pole, mostly in the ocean, but also along the coast, where it can cause a lot of damage."
"Then what's a tornado?" Jolena asked.
"A tornado," Mandy replied, "is sort of whirlpool in the air. It moves in a circle like a hurricane, only it's much smaller and spins faster. It's so strong it can pick up cars and rip pieces off of houses, then put them down again miles away. Tornados happen mostly on land. They only cause damage where they reach down to the earth."
"That's awful!" Jolena exclaimed.
Then Jolena thought for a moment. "I know that floods are when there is too much rain," she said, "and water overflows the rivers and sewers. That sometimes happens with big storms. What about drought?" Jolena asked when she saw that Mandy agreed.
"Drought is the opposite of a flood," Mandy replied. "It's when there's no rain or snow at all for a long time," she explained.
"Lakes and rivers can dry up or get smaller, so they hold less water," Mandy said. "Human people need water to live," she continued, "and they need food. Plants don't grow without water, so crops die and human people are left hungry and thirsty."
"Droughts can lead to wildfires," Mandy went on. "Forests catch on fire and burn, sometimes destroying houses, too. We have that problem sometimes here, where we live," she pointed out. "Remember all the smoke in the air last summer?"
"We couldn't play outside," Jolena remembered. "If we did, our vinyl would start to stink. The sky was red"
"Real children couldn't play outside, either," Mandy pointed out, "because they would be breathing in all that smoke. All these things," Mandy continued, "are a normal part of nature, but it's happening more as the atmosphere heats up because of the greenhouse gases we have been putting into it."
"That's awful," Jolena exclaimed! "I guess if I have to give up the Ski Team to save the earth, I should," she added. sadly shaking her head.
"It isn't that simple," Mandy said with a laugh, "and I don't think quitting the ski team would make much difference." Mandy thought for a moment. "What kind of doll is Maryanne? I mean what is she made of? Is she made from vinyl, like us?" she asked.
"Yes," Jolena replied. "In fact, she was made in the same factory we were made in. She has the same knee and elbow joints we have, and her eyes don't close when she lies down."
"In that case," Mandy concluded, "her carbon footprint starts out pretty much as big as yours and mine. We're all made of vinyl, and making vinyl adds greenhouse gases to the air."
"Oh, no!" Jolena exclaimed. "It would be better if we were never made! Why did they make us, then if we're hurting the earth?" she asked.
"I'm sure the good each of us does outweighs the harm we cause," Mandy assured her, moving over to give her a comforting pat. "While our vinyl gives off gas when we are being made and for a while when we are new, that goes away mostly after we've been out of our boxes for a while. Dolls are only a tiny part of the problem. Many other things are made from vinyl and other kinds of plastic. Most of it is caused by other things, not dolls."
"For instance," Mandy went on, "human people and all animals add greenhouse gases to the air when they breathe."
"I like to pretend to breathe, sometimes," Jolena pointed out.
"Yes," Mandy agreed, "and so do I, but pretend breathing doesn't make carbon dioxide (KAR-bun dye-OX-eyd). Carbon dioxide is the most important of the greenhouse gases. This kind of gas isn't bad by itself," she continued, standing up to gesture out the window. "Trees and other plants breathe in carbon dioxide. They need it to live. They breathe out oxygen in a form human people need, so we help each other."
"The problem is," Mandy told her, "that by using certain fuels for heat and to make cars go human people are making more of this gas than trees and other plants can take out, and that's heating up our air like a greenhouse and causing these changes."
"The reason Maryanne says the Doll Ski Team is giving you a larger carbon footprint," Mandy went on, "is because cars, ships, trains and airplanes that run on these kinds of fuel, like gasoline, create more of this gas than almost anything else we do."
"Would it help the earth," Jolena asked, "if I quit the Ski Team, the way Maryanne said?"
"I doubt it would help any at all," Mandy said, getting up, "but there are other things we all can do, even Maryanne. Let's go get a snack, and I'll explain! I need to pretend to eat. All this thinking has made me hungry!"
....to be continued.
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
