How to Discuss Climate Change with Kids

Climate change affects everyone, but kids are particularly vulnerable. They are especially exposed to environmental health hazards because they are still developing and have greater weight-based exposure to air, food, and water. While the climate situation can feel daunting, there are appropriate methods to discuss it with kids. We may have climate change conversations with kids in an open, hopeful, developmentally appropriate, and action-oriented manner.

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1. Discuss Climate Change with Young Kids and Toddlers (age 1-5)

Toddlers are only beginning to understand their place in the world. It’s the ideal opportunity to introduce kids to them. Here are some suggestions:

Nature Hikes

Take walks to demonstrate how the weather impacts nature. Discuss how weather influences the seasons. You can, for example, point out bird nests and discuss how weather determines when and where birds build their nests. Discuss different wild animals and how they all have homes that need to be protected.

Gardening

Choose fruit, vegetable, or flower seeds for your garden, or herbs for your kitchen boxes. Young kids can assist with plant care and enjoy witnessing something develop from nothing. Discuss how your child, like plants and animals, requires oxygen to breathe. Pollutants in the air have an impact on people’s health.

Check this out next: What Is Organic Farming?

Local Emphasis

Highlight the local effects of climate change based on your area. Some locations may be more vulnerable to wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding, while others may face longer and more intense heat waves, as well as an increase in sickness caused by mosquitoes and ticks.

2. Discuss Climate Change with Kids of School Age (age 6-12)

Begin by describing climate change concepts in simple scientific terms. Inquire about what they know and fill in the holes, or do some research together. NASA has online materials to assist parents in understanding each component of climate change.

Make Contacts

Discuss the impact of personal choices on the environment and demonstrate respect for nature. Calculate your family’s carbon footprint and ask them how they plan to reduce it. Here are several examples:

• After exiting the room, turn off the lights.
• When possible, try biking or walking, taking public transportation, or carpooling.
• Consume a more plant-based diet.
• Explain how people, particularly kids, can be great forces in environmental protection. Emphasise how the decisions we make can assist to make our planet and people healthy.

Check this out next: A Kids’ Guide to Air Pollution

3. Discuss Climate Change with Teenagers (age 13-18)

Teens are more conscious of how issues affect all aspects of their lives. Discuss how climate change can have an impact on our economy and society. This can pique people’s interest in science and introduce them to the concept of civic responsibility.

Consider Recent Events

Choose a recent or continuing incident and analyse how climate change may have contributed to it and its economic consequences. As an example:

• Discuss how climate change is making wildfires in California longer and more intense, resulting in the loss of homes and businesses. Discuss how it is also producing air pollution, forcing people to stay indoors. Consider the psychological repercussions that all of this might have on families.
• Investigate how climate change does not affect everyone equally, and how some areas face greater health hazards. Discuss how everyone should have access to clean air and water.

Take Action Now

Encourage your teen to think of unique solutions and methods to express their ideas. Here are several examples:

• To teach peers about the importance of climate change solutions, use a science class presentation or a school, Scouts, 4-H, or another project.
• Form a school club with other interested students and brainstorm ways to serve your local community.
• Write an article for your local or state newspaper about why teens care about the environment.
• For further motivation, join a national youth advocacy organization.
• Work together to create improvements at home, taking into account your teen’s suggestions. Take part in advocacy as a family.

A child holds placards during a protest march to call for action against climate change, in The Hague, Netherlands September 27, 2019. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

Check this out next: Fridays for Future and the Importance of Young Climate Change Activists

Focus on Solutions

• Pace your climate change conversations to avoid stress and anxiety. When natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes occur, limit your child’s media use to reduce the amount of unpleasant footage they see and hear on the news.
• When talking with your child, keep positive and focused on solutions. We have instruments right now to take climate action, remind them, and they can have immediate health advantages. Even as the climate situation worsens, underline that we can all work together to clean up our air and water and minimise our carbon footprint.

Set A Good Example

• Consider how you can advocate for a safer environment for kids.
• Request that your school district implements a climate curriculum.
• Inform your relatives about outstanding climate activism activities.
• With your family, contact local, state, and federal legislators to support climate action.

Leadership in Youth

Kids are the next generation of intellectuals and inventors. Youth leadership is already having a significant impact. Kids may come up with the best answers if we instill a love of the environment in them from an early age. Don’t be shocked if they teach you anything along the way as well.

Check this out next: A Kid-Friendly Guide to Recycling