TAMPA, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Extreme weather isn’t coming, it’s here. Kids aren’t just witnessing the climate crisis, they’re feeling it. A new UNICEF report reveals that one in five children now face twice as many extreme heat days than six decades ago. Teaching kids to understand and act on these changes isn’t just education, it’s preparation. Climate literacy, knowing how to understand and act on environmental changes, is becoming an essential life skill.
From hurricanes to heatwaves, our kids are growing up in a world where extreme weather is no longer rare, it’s reality. Experts say it’s not enough to protect kids from the climate crisis. We have to prepare them to live through it and lead through it.
“We have climate science and climate literacy is acknowledging the science but focusing on the sort of holistic competencies that we need to understand and act,” said Alexandra Panos, PhD, assistant professor of literacy studies & climate literacy expert at the University of South Florida.
She says that starting young is key.
“If we don’t start helping them recognize that the climate crisis is happening and that we need to understand it and learn how to move through the world in relationship to that at an early age, they won’t know what to do,” Prof. Panos explained.
So how can parents help? Prof. Panos says stories can be powerful tools.
“What stories do is they tell us about the world we live in, but they also can help us imagine another way to be, we can, sort of, re-story our worlds,” she told Ivanhoe.
Prof. Panos also stresses the importance of place-based education: Helping kids form a connection to their own communities.
“You can read books about where you live, you can learn about the native plants and animals,” she said.
And you can ask schools to do more.
“Rarely do I hear anyone say anything about what are you doing to prepare my child for this changing world?” Prof. Panos stated.
So, if knowledge is power, climate literacy is the key to helping our kids not just survive, but thrive, during the climate crisis.
For more resources on climate literacy, including stories, lesson plans, and family activities, visit The Pocket Journal, a free resource from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Climate Literacy.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Executive Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; and Bob Walko, Editor.
Produced by Child Trends News Service in partnership with Ivanhoe Broadcast News and funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)
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Sources:
https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/index
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