Sustainability: Starting a Conversation About Climate Change with Kids

When the new data on climate change came out in October 2018, I sat down with the kids to explain a little of what was happening to our planet. I didn’t want to scare them, but I didn’t want to hide the truth from them, either. After all, it is their generation and the ones after that will be most affected by this trajectory.

I wanted them to understand that the small decisions of our day-to-day lives, coupled with the big decisions of governments and countries, have an impact on the environment. I wanted them to know that as an adult in their life, I was aware of these things, thinking about them, and committed to changing what I could to help. And I wanted their help, which I knew I could garner more of if they understood a little bit more about the immediacy of climate change.

All four of them were shocked by the data and insistent that the adults in power throughout the world should do something. Actually, they would probably make changes today, if only they understood! I believe there was even impassioned talk of calling President Trump. (Bless that child.) To each of them, changing our lifestyle to care for Mother Nature was a complete no-brainer. We discussed giving up beef and biking more. Someone thought about inventing a battery-powered generator that you could charge with a bike. (It would sit in our yard and we’d plug in our phones and computers, ha!) Solar panels, electric cars, hanging laundry— nothing was beyond the realm of possibility for them.

How many adults reacted to the data this way?

Eventually, we reached some decisions about what we would do in the short term, and some we would pursue over the next five to ten years. (Which I’ll post about in time.) In the six months since, I haven’t had one complaint or waver about the changes we’ve implemented from those four amazing beings. (Admittedly, one of them is four and has no idea that anything has changed at all. But still.)

Up until recently, I have been rather pessimistic regarding the impact of my personal choices on political, cultural, and environmental matters, wondering if my small decisions about which ballet hole to fill in, video to post, or product to purchase really matter in the long run. But the enthusiasm and commitment of the little people in my house, not to mention their unabashed belief in their fellow man, has given me hope that my smallness matters. At the very least, I will shape the ideas of these four people, and as they grow up and move out into the world, who knows what they could accomplish with their efforts and passions?

Lets care for the world our kids will call their home, as a way of loving them today and in the future.