It's a new millennium and humanity is living on the brink. What will happen to us? Will we find a way to clean up the atmosphere before it's too late? Will we finally learn how to live in peace together so that everyone has human rights, plenty of healthy food, clean air, fresh water, and a safe place to raise our families? Why have so many for so long been so warlike and so careless with mother nature? How have children been treated over the centuries to make so many of us so angry and so afraid of each other? In the last 15 years scientists made some very important discoveries about the human brain. They found that our genes don't decide if we will grow up to be kind and loving or selfish and violent adults. We all learn how to relate to one another from the way we are treated as children. That's because the way we are treated as children tells our brains how to grow. When you give us your affection when you listen to us and treat us with kindness when you hold us, nurture us, and play with us, our brains make oxytocin, the hormone of love and connection. Oxytocin helps our brains to grow. Mixest kinder, calmer, and more considerate. When we become frightened when you punish us, when you don't listen to us crying, when you leave us alone, our brains make cortisol, the hormone of fear and stress. Too much cortisol and our brains don't grow so well. This can make us more distrustful, more insecure, more sad, or more angry when we grow up. Pam Leo said, how we treat the child, the child will treat the world, so how have adults treated the children over the centuries. In all great ancient civilizations, parents killed their own babies whenever they didn't want them. One in five children were killed or abandoned by their parents, and the law of the day said this was fine. Children everywhere were sold as slaves, they were sacrificed in religious rights. In every continent, children's bodies were cut or deformed. Boys and girls were circumcised, their skulls were squished into weird shapes, a piece of their finger was cut off, or their feet were bound and crushed. During the middle ages, millions of babies were abandoned in the streets, so many babies were thrown out that foundling homes had to be built for them all over Europe. Parents left their children at monasteries where they were forced to live as monks for the rest of their lives, whether they wanted or not. This was called ablation. Few children ever stayed near their parents. At seven years of age, many were sent away to become apprentices, and they had to live in their master's house. Children were punished horribly, they were whipped and beaten often. People used to believe that children were born sinful and had to be punished severely in order to become good people and get to heaven. Babies were tightly swaddled up and left hanging on the wall for hours without being touched, cleaned, rocked or sung to. Most mothers would not breastfeed their own babies, and they were sent away to live with wet nurses until they were weaned. They didn't come home to meet their parents until they were two or three years old. Children were even burned alive as witches. It must have been so awful to be a child during the middle ages. When the undressural revolution came, children were made to work in textile mills, in coal mines or as chimney sweeps. They worked fourteen hours a day and were punished brutally if they didn't work hard enough. Little children were thrown into jail with the adults if they stole anything. The children of wealthy parents got to stay at home and go to school, but they were raised by nannies and had little to do with their parents. They must have been so sad and lonely. Remember, children's brains don't grow properly if they are not protected and given lots of cuddles, love and affection every day. So if children have been treated so badly for thousands of years, is it any wonder there has always been so much war and so much tyranny around the world? The good news is, people began to learn how to raise children more kindly in the last century. Social scientists began to take a serious look at how important childhood is. Children started to be sent to school instead of work. Today, over 80% of children can read and write. A majority of parents gave up on most severe forms of physical punishment. In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children was produced. It was the dawn of the new era of children's rights. Mothers and fathers began to show their children more affection and people learned that children should be given lots of time to play and use their imagination every day. So what do you suppose happened to the world when the adults started treating children better? Do you think the world got better too? Well yes, it did. In the last 50 years, the idea of universal human rights began to spread. More and more, women participate alongside men in politics, business and academia. Laws increasingly protect ethnic minorities from discrimination. This has never happened on such a scale. Today, there are over 80 democratic countries for the first time ever, more than dictatorships. MNUSD International Human Rights Watch over the 900 NGOs around the world are working hard to protect people from injustice. It's the first time in history that those who abuse human rights are sent to an international criminal court. War is as horrible as ever. But more and more people choose the peaceful protest. Think of Gandhi, Mandala, Greenpeace, the Velvet Revolution, the Orange Revolution, the 10 million who marched in 60 countries against war in Iraq. Today, less than 1% of people die as casualties of war. Hundreds of years ago, it was 10%. Believe it or not, there is less homicide today than there ever was. So what else is changing about the way children are raised? Over 15,000 baby friendly hospitals around the world support breastfeeding and mother infant bonding. Breastfeeding is making a strong comeback after it almost disappeared around the world. The fast growing attachment parenting movement is helping babies and children to get the most emotionally secure start in life. Many nations are making it against law for adults to smack children. According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, all nations must make a physical punishment of the child of children illegal. There are countries that have done it so far. In these countries, the children are happier and healthier people, and are more democratic and crime is a lot less. This proves that if we change childhood, we change the world. Can you imagine this kind of society we could have in the future if we keep giving more nutrients to the world's children? The children's well-being manifesto is made up of 15 ideas. Things that governments, communities, and businesses can do to give better support to moms and dads, and ensure that every child is emotionally nourished and secure. Please visit this website and read more about the children's well-being manifesto. And remember, we can have a world of peace, justice, and sustainability. This will happen when children are treated as if their feelings count.