Relieve your children’s anxiety about the future of the planet by showing them the steps you are taking to fight climate change

Sierra Club Magazine writer Mary DeMocker makes several suggestions for how to help children ease their anxiety that is growing from all they are hearing about the climate crisis.  First, it's important to just listen as they verbalize their fears.  In response, it is important to be honest with them but to also point out the progress and activism working to counter the effects.  With her own children, she "assured them that apocalypse isn’t inevitable and that scientists say we have the time and the technology to avert catastrophe."*   Another approach that DeMocker suggests is spending time outside connecting with nature.  Finally, be a role model or work as a family to take concrete steps yourselves.  For example,  "an easy first step might be a family challenge to reduce food waste by 20 percent. Or, students could do school research projects about the kind of energy their local utility uses, and who gets to make that decision.  Families could explore what’s happening locally with forest restoration or fossil fuel resistance, and decide how to support those efforts."*

*Mary DeMocker, Jan 25 2020. "So your kids are stressed out about the climate crisis. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/so-your-kids-are-stressed-out-about-climate-crisis?suppress=true&utm_source=greenlife&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter