Over three decades working hardscrabble in ecological design, climate contingency, regenerative horticulture & forestry, my assessment of the future has been dimming throughout. However I get up every day excited to spend another with our one child building soil, catching rain, planting trees, growing food, walking & biking, seeking remnant nature. He's asked me to refrain from my occasional critiques, but I do wonder: where is everyone? While I believe we must focus on the children, we must not let the grownups get away with all this.
Gen Z is going to save us from ourselves!
This fine reporting has only 11 comments? And many of them are from unskeptical "skeptics" (aka climate evidence and science detractors)? Sad.
A call to action for survival is important. And this is both practical and informative.
Thanks for trying.
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Trying to build resilience with practical strategies and a hands-on approach sounds great for this age group. Climate anxiety is real for kids. Some are trying to cope by planning to not have children of their own. A question: has anyone evaluated whether these efforts really work to build resilience and promote positive mental health among kids? As compared to, as one commenter suggested, scaring and paralyzing them? Perhaps NOAA funded or could fund studies, jointly with the NIH's mental health or child health and human development institute.
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So, the climate change fanatics that run around shrieking that the world is ending and frightening children now need millions from the government to talk them down? That the idiocy of that isn't getting pointed out is a good example of how unbalanced the treatment of the issue is. There's a lot of good practical stuff being taught here, and some of it sounds like a good old-fashioned field to enable kids to get in touch with nature. But, when I learned science, we were taught to make our own observations, and come to our own conclusions. Hopefully that conclusion is what's being reinforced here, instead of just telling kids what we want them to think.
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Environmental change happens. When Krakatoa erupted in the last 1800s, temperatures dropped around the world and people needed to adjust for reduced crop yields. (Which makes me wonder if we all shouldn't pray to our volcanos to get a little climate change relief... ). Being aware and able to plan or understand what to do to ensure survival is a good thing. Classes like this - and learning how to set up and use a rain barrel - are a good start.
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Been a while since I’ve poked into the environmental ed world. It’s always had an important niche, with dedicated practitioners. It hasn’t hurt that in a controversial “business,” it tends not to raise hackles. I always thought, though, its methods and ecological lessons were underutilized, and was curious how it is absorbing climate change, as, like in some other even environmental fields, it has been slow to the party.
This is impressive! Janine packs a lot in: the cognitive, emotional, practical (even the gutters), feel, social, community, mental health, dot-connecting, wrestling with doom and gloom. It is not take the field trip to the nature center (as valuable as that was).
In contrast, at the college level, at the climate change forums and protests I’ve attended, while they certainly have the virtues of, and we certainly badly need, the passion and attention-raising, there’s a certain amount of frame-limiting.
Never is it mentioned that climate change is a wicked problem, which the students are going to be dealing with their whole lives because—we don’t know all the answers. I heard a very simplistic Theory of Change at one the other day. It really isn’t a matter of if we just protest, lobby, and pass a law, we’ll be OK. We’re going to have to re-invent our way through this, in field after field, which includes means learning how to learn.
I imagine that despite the age differences, there are connections to be made at what is aimed for at these two educational levels.
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Kids, from grade schoolers to graduate students, are scared about the future. Thank you for highlighting programs that develop skills to navigate the difficult times ahead. We all need to study and practice the skills of resilience for dealing with an unpredictable climate. Uncertainty will be the watchword of teh 21st century.
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Brainwashing by any other name.
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@Ralphie Even if there wasn't unanimity about human caused climate change among all scientists (there is), resilience and self-sufficiency would still be valuable things to have.
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@Ralphie : It's too bad you don't see the valuable skills and knowledge these kids are learning. Knowing how to take car of the beautiful planet is essential knowledge at any age.
I'm curious how similar or different the weather in your area is from when you were growing up. In the past 20 years, I've seen tremendous changes in the seasons in my area. Enough to make anyone pay attention.
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@Justice I'm a scientist and I think it's voodoo. What you meant to say of course, was, climate scientists. Who all are on the zeitgeist train to publications, tenure, speaking engagements... etc. And I don't speak without having analyzed a heck of a lot of climate data. I can say for certain that the vaunted global temp record is snake oil -- a combination of estimates, extrapolations and adjustments. There simply wasn't a viable global temp network in 1880, 1900, 1950. And it's very weak now.
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