Of course, children and young people do not form a homogeneous group – maturity, ability to process and access to support varies from child to child. This page covers ideas relevant to a wide cross section, before making a couple of further suggestions to suit some broad (and gently held) groups defined by age in the following pages.
Listen; ask questions and listen some more
Half of children who speak or try to speak to others about climate change feel they have been dismissed and not heard;[i] we need to start by listening to our young people. Instead of viewing climate conversations as a didactic process, with us as adults speaking to children, we should enter conversations looking to communicate with them. We want to empower them, open conversations up and hear their ideas, not view climate conversations as a teacher-student process.
One way to start is with questions. Open questions can enable you to find out what they know already, what they want to know or are interested in, and how they are feeling. This makes it easier to pitch your interaction at the right level, and to avoid assumptions about what they might want or need from talking with you.
Acknowledging and seeing to answer all their questions will help a young person feel heard and validate their curiosity.[i] If it feels appropriate, you could make a list of questions in writing together, to make it easier to keep track. Of course, you won’t have all the answers! Don’t be afraid to let young people know you are learning too – it is great role modelling, reinforces the dynamic of mutual discovery, sharing and companionship.
Model consent
“Would you like to talk about…?”
Psychologist Dan Rubin recommends asking for consent when talking to adults about climate change,[ii] and this suggestion is perhaps even more important when broaching the subject with young people. Our children are relatively powerless, and seeking their consent for anything can be a radical act.
Seeking individual consent in a school classroom context can be harder to do for obvious reasons, and Jo McAndrews draws on her experience of talking about divorce in that setting, to suggest the following:
“I remember years ago when I worked for a family mediation service that we used a model that worked very well in schools in talking about divorce. We gave a talk to a big group, a class, year group or assembly then had follow-up availability to meet with pupils who wanted to discuss it further so that was within their consent.
… Explain that issue and dilemma in your talk [to a class or whole school]. Just to say to a school full of young people that their consent is an issue is a wonderful big gift to offer. And then give your talk, being mindful of anything that could be overwhelming (I know that is a very difficult call to make), with the offer of a group session for those students who want to hear more or ask more questions. I also think the model of a regular lunchtime group facilitated by an outside specialist like yourself is a model with a lot of good potential.”[iii]
Be open and honest – but don’t go further than you need to
Trying to protect young people by pretending everything is just fine can have a negative effect, undermining their trust and leaving them alone when they need us. Caroline Hickman tells us that “if we don’t talk about the shadow side, we leave children to fear the worst.”[iv]
As Jo McAndrews says,
“Safety is not in hiding stuff; safety is in being accompanied.”
Climate Communicator and mother Michelle Nijhuis suggests we treat the subject of climate change a bit like talking about sex:
“As a parent, I approach the subject of climate change much like I approach the subject of sex: while I answer all questions, without hesitation and in full, I make sure not answer more questions than I’m asked. […] I’ve learned that kids usually tell us or show us when they’re ready to expand that world. When my daughter is ready to set out into the unknown territory of climate change, I trust she’ll let me know.”[v]
We do not want to overwhelm young people with information that they did not ask for. This too can be harmful as harmful as withholding. Caroline Hickman likes to use the analogy of a plant in a pot – too much rubble (aka information) and the plant can’t grow, but then pure compost (over protection from the reality) and you can undermine resilience.[vi] It is a difficult balance to strike, but useful to bear in mind – and Hickman suggests we openly present children with the dilemma we face, when age-appropriate, e.g., “I am happy to tell you about this, but I also don’t want to overwhelm you.” We need to be tuned into the young person and be ok with checking in to make sure we are meeting their need in that moment with the conversation.
… and don’t use fear
Consensus suggests that inducing fear and anxiety in people of any age is not an effective path to long term engagement, action, and behaviour change (and can trigger psychological defence mechanisms like psychic numbing),[vii] some argue shock tactics have their place.[viii]
It may seem obvious, but when communicating about the climate crisis with children, it is not acceptable to scare them if we can avoid it. More than that, we need to be actively mindful of the potential impact of anything they are being exposed to and enact fierce protection (in a way that does not equate to withholding, of course).
One area where this is relevant is when considering the potential impact of attending protests that have not been designed with children in mind – or indeed, co-created with young people.
Caroline Hickman talks about the XR ‘buckets of blood’ demonstration,[ix] which took place in March 2019 – and which you can watch on YouTube. Activists poured 200 litres of fake blood on the pavement outside Downing Street. Whilst she does not rule out exposing a young person to the spectacle, she suggests we talk to a child first, and that suitability will vary from child to child. If a child is lucky enough ]to have a secure attachment relationship with an adult, plus the opportunity to process any arising emotions safely, we can edge towards introducing them. She suggests we do this with pictures first, and regularly check in during the process to see if it is too much. Given the choice, I would not expose my children to this particular action (even as an image or video, and certainly not live), as it is visually powerful, and once seen cannot be unseen. Rather than involving children in adult-centered protest and activism, let us think instead about co-creation activities that are child-centered and, as much as possible, child-led.
For a useful exploration of how we can support children who participate in adult activism, and how we can create opportunities for family-friendly activism, which is child-centred, safe and empowering, I recommend the second half of Jo McAndrews’ talk ‘Supporting children in the face of climate change’, available on YouTube, starting 46 minutes and 25 seconds in.[x]
Nita Ganguly, educator and author, and Caroline Hickman also discuss best practice in an Our Kids Climate webinar from June 2021.[xi]
We need to be careful with media and reading materials too. I once removed copies of XR’s This is not a drill from the children’s section in our local bookshop; its messaging is not appropriate for young readers. Likewise, David Attenborough’s landmark documentary, ‘Climate Change – the facts’, is not something which should be shown to young people without considering the possible impact on any individual and ensuring access to adequate support after viewing. I know plenty of adults who were deeply unsettled by that documentary, and whilst it might be important watching, it is not made for children.
Of course, we cannot control everything our children see or hear, especially with the increased prevalence and accessibility of digital media – though that can be tempered with the use of parental controls (a dark art I have never really mastered). But when we can make choices, we can try to make thoughtful decisions about what we expose a young person to, based on their needs, personality and access to support. And when young people are exposed to things which might be upsetting, we should seek to help them process their feelings around the experience, on an ongoing basis.
Be clear that all feelings are welcome, and proactively encourage sharing
Making it clear that all feelings are welcome and valid is crucial, and we need to be encouraging and normalising emotional biodiversity.
The increase in eco-anxiety amongst young people has caught the attention of psychologists and the media. It is important to remember that a) anxiety is a normal and indeed rational response to the climate crisis and b) it is just one of a whole array of emotions people may be experiencing.
“I just feel everything, all at once, scared, angry, frustrated, depressed, guilty – why aren’t people doing something about it!”
Aaron aged 15[xii]
Anxiety becomes a problem when it interferes with enjoyment of life and everyday functioning, and if this is the case, professional support can be beneficial and may be necessary. However, in and of itself, anxiety, and other ‘difficult’ or bad emotions (anger, fear, frustration, guilt…) should not be problematised. As mental health is measured by our capacity to respond to external reality – and right now, our reality is that we are in crisis – some level of anxiety is a healthy response, and Hickman warns against the urge to try and disallow or suppress these natural emotional responses. Instead, feelings need to be validated, processed, and normalized, and what Hickman terms ‘emotional biodiversity’ should be encouraged.[xiii] Children build essential emotional resilience by experiencing emotions we think of as negative (guild, despair, hopelessness, anger) as well as those we think of as positive: optimism, positive thinking, courage, and determination.
Developing critical emotional awareness is thought to be key in enabling pro-environmental behaviours.[xiv] If we want children to be able to respond to difficult feelings that the climate crisis will inevitably bring up in a positive way (i.e. to avoid negative coping strategies like denial and distraction), we need to help them build an awareness of emotional regulation strategies.
How?
- Be clear all emotions are natural and welcome. Stop classing some as ‘good’ and some as ‘bad’.
- Let them know it is ok not to be ok – and that it is also ok to need help and support with not being ok. This can be done with words and also through modelling with your own actions.
- Build and encourage emotional literacy, by making time to talk about feelings and using tools like the emotions wheel and anger iceberg. See the 2021 London Climate Action Week report by Caroline Hickman for useful ideas on supporting children with their feelings.[xv]
- Invite the young person to share some feeling words and talk about what you feel yourself.For example, I might acknowledge that I am sometimes afraid; I would also tell them how I feel hopeful and explain a bit about why, that I am witnessing a huge shift in awareness, which I have wanted to see for a long time. In doing this, I am modelling what Hickman calls Radical Hope, which breaks down the binary of hope versus hopelessness, allowing us to experience both at the same time. Radical Hope is not about being naïve about our climate future and hoping for the sake of it; it is geared towards action and is a practice.
Sharing your own feelings can demonstrate that feelings can be complex, contradictory, are welcome, and supports the development of emotional vocabulary and awareness. Sharing feelings offers the chance for ‘attunement’ between yourself and the young person, which psychologist Renée Lertzman describes as a state of being ‘in sync, when we feel understood, and we feel accepted for exactly where we are’.[xvi]
‘When appropriate, it can be very helpful(?) for an adult to share their feelings about climate change with children in a contained way that models to children how to feel complicated and often uncomfortable feelings and not fall apart of collapse or use these painful feelings to hurt someone else.
We need to ‘show’ children how to navigate these feelings, they will copy the way that adults they respect and trust manage their own feelings.’
Caroline Hickman, 2021[xvii]
Want to think further about different ways of ‘doing’ hope? You could start with ecophilosopher Joanna Macey phD & resilience specialist Dr Chris Johnstone’s work on Active Hope: www.activehope.info
Nurture that nature connection
We live in a time of ‘nature deficit’ (a term coined by Richard Louv in 2005),[xviii] and things are getting worse. By 2050, the WWF predicts that two thirds of humanity will live in cities with a less direct relationship to nature.[xix] What’s more, access to nature is not evenly distributed, with children from minority ethnic and under resourced communities less likely to have the opportunity to enjoy it.[xx]
‘If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered species: the child in nature.’
Louv, 2005[xxi]
A 2019 UK survey of 1000 5-16-year-olds found that over 80% could not identify a bumblebee or an oak leaf; half could not identify a stinging nettle, just under half, a dandelion.
We are increasingly aware of the benefits of the natural world for physical and mental health and wellbeing. Most easily acquired in childhood, nature connectedness is a consistent predictor of pro-environmental behaviour.[xxii] Children have an innate interest in the natural world, and a biological tendency to bond with it – what E. O. Wilson calls ‘biophilia’,[xxiii] and this should be nurtured.
‘The critical age of influence appears to be before 12 years. Before this age contact with nature in all its forms, but in particular wild nature, appears to strongly influence a positive behaviour towards the environment.’
Bird, 2007 [xxiv]
Allowing children to play in and engage with nature is so important, as, in the words of Sir David Attenborough (with similar statements attributed to numerous wise others),
“No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”
- Direct experience is the most effective route to connection. The more time a child can spend playing in nature and green spaces, the better. Take time to notice nature’s beauty in everyday places, like hedges on the way home, green shoots in tarmac. Bring natural things inside to inspect and enjoy. Collect some old spiders’ webs and roll them into a sticky ball. Look at a dead bee through a microscope. Make it multisensory and take time to wonder.There are lots of great resources with ideas for nature connection, some of which are listed below. And if you’re a parent and don’t have the capacity to spend time in nature with you children, you may be able to find a forest school or extracurricular club to fill the gap or encourage your local school to spend time outside. If you’re not sure where to start, check out the National Trust’s 50 things to do before you’re 11 ¾.
- Enhance the experience with mindfulness. Research suggests the quality of the interaction with the natural world matters, and tools like mindfulness can be used to deepen connection. Research in 2021 found that even a short half-day intervention that included a series of mindful activities could support children in building a positive relationship to the natural world.[xxv] This is the sort of thing schools should be encouraged to include.
- Animals are a great way in. Early years expert Patty Born Selly writes about the value in providing opportunities for children to connect with other living creatures from a very young age, through pets at home and in school, petting zoos and city farms. Whilst animals don’t need to be exotic, wild animals hold particular magic for children.‘Their homes are different from ours, and are built by the animals themselves. Wild animals have to find their own food, and they eat “weird things” like bugs and worms. They have special powers like flying, digging and climbing (which children often fantasize about), and the animals themselves choose when and where to be seen by children, not the other way round.’[xxvi]She suggests we look and listen for animals whenever we go outside, and if we have a pet at home or in a classroom, we include children in their everyday care. We can ask questions to encourage empathy, for example, “What do you think it is like to be that duck in the rain?” Boundaries that keep both children and animals safe should be set proactively, in a matter of fact and clear manner, without shaming of mistakes; for example, if you are looking at some ants, let the child know they should not step on them, as they might out of curiosity and a lack of understanding of the potential impact. Want to read more? Check out Patty Born Selly’s book, Connecting Animals and Children in Early Childhood (2014, Red Leaf Press).[xxvii]
- Go multimedia. There are some incredible nature documentaries and footage available these days, and audiovisual content can be a great tool, especially where direct access to the natural world is limited, and with screens such a part of so many children’s lives. Though a documentary does not replace direct experience, it can enable the watcher to travel across the world, get up close and personal with wild animals, making it possible for young people to see and learn about creatures and landscapes they wouldn’t otherwise experience.The suitability of any documentary depends on the content and age and specifics of the young watcher, and whilst some are calling for Attenborough documentaries to be mandatory in schools,[xxviii] it is good to treat material not made specifically for a young audience with care. In our house, Netflix’s ‘Izzy’s Koala World’, which follows the life of 11-year-old Izzy Bee at her koala hospital home on an Australian island, was a firm favourite with my children from a young age and tailored to their needs.
- Teach the language of nature. The Lost Words is a book created by writer Robert McFarlane and artist Jackie Morris in response to the deletion of a selection of nature words being axed from OUP’s Oxford Junior Dictionary. To uproar from cultural figures, ‘acorn’, ‘buttercup’ and ‘conker’ have disappeared, but ‘broadband’ and ‘attachment’ have appear, with OUP defending their decision as an accurate reflection of what language is commonly used.
McFarlane takes the idea that we cannot love what we do not know a step further, saying,“We do not care for what we do not know, and on the whole, we do not know what we cannot name. Do we want an alphabet for children that begins ‘A is for Acorn, B is for Buttercup, C is for Conker’; or one that begins ‘A is for Attachment, B is for Block-graph, C is for Chatroom’?”[xxix]Language is a key transmitter of knowledge. The language of nature is disappearing as the disconnection between our children and the natural world grows. A key part of enabling nature connection is making sure our young people still have the language that facilitates it.
Recent research has highlighted the link between access to nature and green spaces and socio-economic status and ethnicity in the UK.[xxx]
‘Nature may feel as though it is readily accessible to all, but the data shows that access is subject to considerable socio-economic inequality.’ Marsh 2021[xxxi]
A Natural England’s survey in 2020 found you are less likely to have visited a natural space in the last 14 days if you are living in an area of high deprivation, in a household with low income and unemployment. People living in poverty are less likely to have access to a shared or private outdoor space.[xxxii] The gap in access was made worse by Covid.
Ethnicity has twice the impact of socio-economic factors. Children from ethic minority backgrounds spend less time outside and in green spaces on a weekly basis than white children;[xxxiii] black people in England are nearly four times as likely as white people to have no outdoor space at home.[xxxiv]
There is also a lack of racial diversity in children’s books, and in particular in those about the outdoors and nature. In the words of Lenny Henry, “you can’t be what you can’t see”. If children of colour don’t see people who look like them in books about the environment, they get the message they don’t belong in nature or in pro-environmental roles. As a result, the environmental movement will continue to struggle with diversity. And what hope do we have of tackling climate change effectively if protecting the environment is seen to ‘belong’ to white people, i.e. the global minority?[xxxv]
So what does this mean for how we engage?
· We need to use materials that promote an inclusive vision of environmental action. Check out these lists as a good starting point for finding some great books:
https://diversebookfinder.org/uncategorized/bipoc-joy-outdoors-diverse-books-to-combat-the-nature-gap/
http://kidsclimateaction.org/2021/08/13/books-to-educate-inspire-and-move/
If you live in Oxford, check out the Oxford Poetry Library and Children’s Allotment ‘Many Voices Collection’, a lending library of books featuring Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) characters, and written by BIPOC authors; in 2021, Low Carbon West Oxford, where I work, donated 23 books with an environmental theme to the library, and they’re all available to borrow. https://oxfordpoetrylibrary.com/many-voices-collection/
· We can support and engage with organisations that promote diverse access to nature, and activists like Mya-Rose Craig – see www.birdgirluk.com/black2nature
· We need to change how we create our vision for the future, to be more inclusive. Behaviour change can be alienating if not culturally sensitive, and we need to avoid trying to impose a
“A positive environmental vision needs to be co-created with these young people. And to make it stick it needs to resonate at a personal level.”
· Roy Kareem, leader in diverse youth engagement
Hear ideas from Roy Kareem and others at the forefront of trying to widen the environmental movement in this recording of a London Climate Action Week panel event, ‘Supporting youth climate action in our communities’: https://youtu.be/fpGiGAcr4fQ
Use stories, and work through examples
Stories, both fictional and real-world, can be powerful.
‘All the best facts, figures and arguments in the world can’t change a person’s mind; the only thing that can do that is a good story.’
Richard Powers, The overstory[xxxvi]
We can use real-world stories to demonstrate how humans can overcome great challenges.
‘You can pre-empt despondency by recounting success stories. And there are some! Let’s not forget that nations around the world came together in 1987 to ban ozone-depleting substances and successfully averted the disaster of a UV-bombarded Earth. In fact, ozone levels are projected to return to 1980 levels by 2032.’
Danielle Cranmer from the Rainforest Alliance, in ‘5 Tips for Talking to Kids About Climate Change (Without Freaking Them Out)’[xxxvii]
Psychotherapist Caroline Hickman uses stories as an effective tool to counteract mild levels of anxiety, where anxious feelings are relatively transient. Hearing about others taking positive action ‘can lead to a focus on optimism and hope that others will stop things before they get too bad’ (Hickman, 2021)[xxxviii]; they also create space for dialogue and allow children to explore how they feel about climate change in a different way – a good way to practice feelings and ideas without them being too overwhelming.
‘…use stories to help children talk about how they feel about climate change but in a slightly ‘sideways’ way. I would not encourage children to start by thinking about how climate change might affect them directly. I would start with stories so that the feelings can be imagined and connected with in a more moderate way at the start. This helps children start to get familiar with the feelings before feeling them fully and personally.’
Hickman, 2021[xxxix]
Tips for telling stories
- Use both fiction and non-fiction, both have their power.
- Focus on inspiring people and avoid doom mongering.[xl]
- Use stories that show people of all ages and backgrounds engaging with the natural world
- Learn from people and cultures around the world. Use indigenous stories, stories that depict nature as not separate from culture and instead emphasise the reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world.[xli]
- Don’t limit stories to environmental themes – borrow stories of overcoming great challenges from other areas of life e.g. Rosa Parks, women’s suffrage…
- Use books that celebrate the language of nature.
- Make children part of the story telling process: co-create stories, ask for their ideas and thoughts. Who are their favourite characters? What do they think a good ending to the story might look like?
Develop skills they’ll need for a climate changed world
The Australian Psychological Society created a useful freely downloadable pamphlet, ‘Raising children to thrive in a climate changed world’ (2018)[xlii] to help parents think through the skills their children need support to develop, to be prepared for a climate changed world. They identify four sets of skills children need to develop so they can ‘adapt to climate change and thrive in a climate changed world […]: individual skills, inter-personal skills, social engagement and citizenship skills’. These are all skills parents can help to develop, with useful suggestions outlined in the report.
Draw on the village
Don’t go it alone. As already outlined, it takes a village to raise a child, and talking to children about a complex topic like climate change is a perfect example of where back-up is invaluable. Extra-curricular activity groups, like the Brownies, Scouts and Woodcraft Folk, outdoor holiday activity camps – and at school, Forest School -, can provide a great opportunity for children to engage with the natural world and learn about how to care for the environment.
Model self-care
Model your own self-care and show kids that it is ok – and vital – to take a break when you need one. Hickman talks to children about the importance of both ‘external’ and ‘internal’ activism, the former being taking action out in the world, the latter the necessary emotional work to avoid crash and burn. Caroline Hickman suggests telling children,
“it’s ok to not always feel like you’ve got that agency in the world, and sometimes it’s ok to collapse and feel despair, and then you can get up again, and then you can do the cycle again, and that’s what the emotional resilience gives you.”[xliii]
This is a long-term process, there are no quick fixes for the climate crisis, so sharing with and demonstrating self-care to children (like some of what was described in the first section of this guide) is a powerful and important thing to do.
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