The Quartz newsletter featured a good New York Times article today on how to have conversations about climate change with kids without scaring them.
The article provides simple guidance to parents –
1) Start the conversation by enabling kids to appreciate nature and cultivating a love for plants and animal.
2) Do the homework to understand climate change yourself so you can explain it in simple terms (they stress here that parents, in many cases, have as much to learn about the topic as kids)
3) Explain the consequences of the earth getting warmer – using its effect on animals as a starting point
4) Engage them in activities such as a community garden or a recycling program so they get to act on what they’ve learnt
These steps are a great starting point. We’ve seen way too much doom mongering – which, even if it isn’t entirely wrong based on what we know today, isn’t helpful or constructive. We have a long way to go in understanding and solving the problem. And, having constructive conversations is an important first step.