NYT: Kids will ask 'parents what they plan to do about climate change. “And parents should have an answer for that' We will and do! Relax, climate fears are bullshit kids! https://t.co/4Qw0TdUqpP
— Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) June 27, 2019
NYT: “We are now only beginning to talk about climate anxiety,” she said. “It used to be fringe-y.' – Reality check: It is still is 'fringe-y' and absurd. Seek mental health treatment instead of polluting kids minds! https://t.co/4Qw0TdUqpP
— Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) June 27, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/science/climate-change-children-education.html
Climate Change Is Scaring Kids. Here’s How to Talk to Them.
Hollywood has produced quite a few fictionalized depictions of dramatic climate change. Scores of people die after Manhattan freezes in 2004’s “The Day After Tomorrow.” In “Geostorm,” released in 2017, the weather goes haywire after satellites malfunction.
Realistic scenarios, though, have been less frequent. Yet Sunday’s episode of “Big Little Lies,” the HBO show about five women living in Monterey, Calif., included a second grader who had an anxiety attack after discussing climate change with a teacher. The girl worried the world was going to end.
Psychologists say the way parents and teachers talk about climate change with children has an effect on their young psyches.
“A lot of people, when they talk to kids, are processing their own anxiety and fears,” said John Fraser, a psychologist and chief executive of NewKnowledge, a social science think tank that studies health and the environment. “Do you think kids won’t be scared, too? As a culture, we haven’t developed good tools to talk about these things.”
Janet K. Swim, a professor of psychology at Penn State University, said she emphasized several steps for parents (and teachers, for that matter) to take when talking about climate change with youngsters.
“You should start off with something positive, like, ‘We like the planet,’” she said. This should be followed with taking children outside to appreciate nature. For city dwellers, this is as simple as going to a park. Families in more rural areas can hike.
“The goal is for them to appreciate the beauty of nature,” Dr. Swim said. “They should be thinking about what is good in the environment.”
This serves a purpose: connecting children to a world larger than their own.
“There is this thinking that young kids will understand what we are talking about,” Dr. Fraser said. “But summer and fall are new. They are only beginning to understand the seasons. Nature, to them, is a tree.”