Concerned about climate change? Get the kids involved

I remember coming home from elementary school with a new book called “50 Simple Things Kids Can do to Save the Earth.” Being someone who liked to make lists and check things off from a very young age, this book spoke to my soul. I wasn’t necessarily worried that the state of the planet was at a catastrophic point. I just knew I wanted to do something to help make things better.

It was the early ‘90s. While experts may have been concerned about the fast pace of climate change, I was blissfully unaware that things were getting exponentially worse. It still rained in California, and I typically woke up to foggy Sebastopol mornings in the summer, shivering at the side of Ives pool as I waited for my swim lessons to begin.

Fast forward, and here we are. While temperatures have been surprisingly mild this month (knock on wood), I am constantly shocked when I drive over to my childhood home in the Hessel area and see that there is no longer fog rolling over the hills by the end of the day. Instead, my kids can swim at 7 p.m., something that never happened growing up.

As my wishes for rain aren’t panning out, I’ve been trying to figure out how to empower my children. To make them want to actively participate in making changes for their own future. But I’m also aware that they don’t live with the same sense of security as I did. They’ve been evacuated in an eerie smoke-filled windstorm in their pajamas at 3 a.m. They’re living through a global pandemic and missed more than a year of in-person socio-emotional growth at school.

And to be honest, I’m tired of hearing that kids are resilient. It’s not that it isn’t true, thankfully they are, but I can’t help but wonder if all of this stress and trauma is going somewhere deep inside, affecting their feelings of safety.

Part of me doesn’t want to add another thing to their apocalyptic list, and I sometimes feel overwhelmed as a parent navigating all of it. But clearly, we don’t have the privilege of living in denial as our to-go bags are ready at all times. Even as I write this, there is catastrophic flooding in Europe that experts agree is a stark reminder that climate change is real.

Instead, I really want to find a way to help them feel that they have the power to make changes, just as I did when I read that book. They are, after all, the ones who will have to live with it. Plus, I don’t want them to look at me in the future and wonder why we didn’t do more.

Recently as I scrolled through social media, I saw a quote from Greta Thunberg that said, “The climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is wake up and change.”

I know it’s a bit of a naïve pipedream, but I can’t help but imagine the impact it would make if every single household with children prioritized these conversations about climate change. If lessons in sustainability and earth stewardship became a regular and required part of school curriculum.

So in our house, we are talking as a family about water conservation, about the dry earth, about climate change. We talk about caring for the planet, the potential reasons why I never missed school due to “smoke days,” and why we aren’t going to put grass in our yard. We try to model sustainable, local food choices in our kitchen, and I want to keep expanding their knowledge about the influence of their small but mighty footprints on the world.

When working in health education, I’d teach about SMART goals – small, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals that add up over time. I am far from an expert on solving the challenges of global warming and drought. Still, I do know that with anything, small changes add up to long-lasting results. And at the risk of sounding trite, the children in our lives really are the future. I’m optimistic that if we give them a push in the right direction, they can be the ones to turn things around.