We teach our kids a lot here in Houston during the summer. And I’m not talking about those extra-long classes students take as a second chance for algebra.

In March I heard Amy Jaffe give a presentation at the Rice Alumni College entitled “The Outlook for OPEC.” Ms. Jaffe, the senior energy advisor for the Baker Institute at Rice University, spent most of her presentation discussing supply and demand for fossil fuels, the political situations that affect the oil markets, and the challenges of predicting what the price of oil will be in a few years.

As an optimist who still hopes to see the (real) dawn of renewable energy in his lifetime, I was somewhat dismayed until her closing remarks, when she related a story of a conversation she had recently with an oil industry executive. They were discussing the future of oil. Her story went something like this:

“You know, your future customers are the kids who are in elementary school now, like my son. His world is quite different from ours. Last year, he missed 13 days of recess because of ozone alerts. When I was in school we had nuclear war drills where we put our heads under the desks, but he misses recess because of ozone pollution. And for him, missing recess is a very big deal.

“Recently he was working on a school project where he had to think about what his platform would be if he were President. He told me his platform would be to get rid of ozone pollution; that way he and his friends wouldn’t miss any more recess. I told him that eliminating ozone pollution was easier said than done, and asked him how he would accomplish such a task. He said it would be simple – outlaw oil.”

His solution may not be politically or economically feasible, but it probably would solve our ozone problem. As Houston’s summer heats up and the ozone watches and warnings pick up, keep in mind what we’re teaching our kids. Wouldn’t it be great if we could solve our ozone alert and canceled recess problem for our kids before they’re old enough to solve it themselves?