How I Talk to My Daughter About Climate Change
As a reporter covering the environment, I'm all too aware of what the next 50 years could hold. As a 9-year-old, she's not—and for now, she wants to stay that way.
Editor’s Note: This article is part of Parenting in an Uncertain Age, a series about the experience of raising children in a time of great change.
Late last year, a local middle-school teacher asked me to talk to her class about my work as a science journalist. When the appointed afternoon arrived, family scheduling conflicts required my young daughter to tag along.
“So I’m going to be talking to these kids about climate change,” I told her in the car. “You can stay in the classroom and listen, or we can find another place for you to hang out while I talk.”
She looked up from her book, one in a labyrinthine series about warring cat clans. “Another place to hang out,” she said, and returned to her
