As a parent, it can be hard to know when and how to introduce the topic of climate change with your kids. But it’s already on many young peoples’ minds.
“Kids are asking about it at a very young age,” says Daniel Masler, a clinical psychologist in Washington state. “We’ve had smoke all over the West. We’ve had hurricane warnings. Kids are dealing with these events, so parents have to start answering,”
Masler is co-founder of an organization called Talk Climate that aims to get families discussing climate change.
“We really want to help model, give ideas for, just anything we can do to help people start up conversations about climate change across the generations,” he says.
On its website, the group recommends articles, videos, and podcasts that can provide a starting point for conversations.
And the team offers advice for talking about climate change with different age groups. For example, they suggest that with young children, caregivers start with bite-size pieces of information, express curiosity about their reactions, and follow their lead on how much they’re ready to absorb.
Masler says open dialogue about climate is important.
“Talk leads to understandings and understandings lead to action,” he says.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media