Back To School In The Climate Crisis
Resources, Action, And Wisdom for the New School Year
It’s a moment of cognitive dissonance: As I head to Staples to pick up piles of new stuff for my children’s new school terms, I’m also thinking about how this can be a year of meaningful climate learning and action for my kids and other kids in NYC and around the country.
Here are some of the resources and links I share most frequently and find most useful myself, some by me, some by others.
Important: if you care for kids under 18 and are interested in participating in a paid focus group this fall to learn more about talking to kids about climate change, reply to this newsletter!
Talking to kids resources
How to talk to kids about climate change (article + podcast)
A kids’ guide to climate change (Printable comic)
Climate change and climate action for 2-5 year olds (article)
How to talk to young people about climate emotions (downloadable resources)
Conversation guide with links to educational resources from the Rainforest Alliance
Education resources
Subject to Climate — lessons by and for teachers, news articles for students, all free
Take Action Global —get your school involved in climate action, for one day or a whole year
NASA’s ClimateKids site — lesson plans and kid friendly animations/videos
Climate Visuals - a visual resource library
Full list of education resources from the federal government
Climate Cardinals - a youth-led nonprofit that translates climate resources into dozens of languages
Action resources for parents and children
Make this the year you join a group and get more involved. It doesn’t have to be parent-focused, but here are some options if you’re interested!
For Parents/Caregivers
Climate Families NYC - they hold fun demonstrations in NYC that are friendly to people wiht small children
Moms Clean Air Force - 1.5 million strong, a dozen state chapters, lobbying for changes in laws to reduce pollution and carbon emissions
Mothers Out Front - national, regional and local campaigns
Our Kids Climate - they do “microgrants” for your own intergenerational project, and have a strong global network
Third Act (for grandparents :))
Get going on decarbonizing your kid’s school or district with the K12 Climate Action Plan . I wrote about some case studies and action steps here.
For Young People
FridaysforFuture (Greta Thunberg’s organization)
Sunrise Movement’s Green New Deal for schools campaign
Treeage in NYC
Got any more resources to add? Write and let me know. And as always, thanks for reading and please share!