Syllabus: Children and Climate Change
From Wendell Berry to the UN’s Human Development Report, here’s some of what’s shaping our thinking about the most critical threat to children’s flourishing in the 21st century and beyond.
by Joe Waters
Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash
Today we continue our occasional series in which we present syllabi to tell the stories of particular issues through curated and annotated lists of books, articles, and art. These syllabi invite you to join us in deeper study of issues and complete new stories built on the expertise, perspective, and struggles of those who have come before. In this installment, I focus on the impacts of climate change on young children, which is the most urgent yet long-term barrier to children’s flourishing and well-being. Read more about Capita’s work to address the impacts of climate change on young children.
Without prompt, serious, and dramatic action from business, governments, philanthropy, and the entire breadth of civil society, we risk the possibility that the health and well-being of today’s children, and the children of generations yet to come, will be defined by ecological crises resulting from climate change. From the traumas of extreme weather events to food insecurity resulting from drought, children are uniquely threatened by the effects of climate change. Here are four texts and one talk that have helped me make sense of the crisis and the opportunities for action.
This comprehensive report supports a deeper understanding of “a range of possible futures” for our children, grand-children, and future generations and the degree of action – or inaction – in the face of climate change.
The Human Development Report 2020: The next frontier
While the UN’s IPCC reports are better known and more widely covered for their focus on the science of climate change and the lack of progress in slowing global warming, the 30th anniversary edition of the UN’s Human Development report focused on human development in the Anthropocene (the new geological age defined by human impact on the planet) and the need to “redesign the path” to human well-being, beginning in the earliest years of childhood, that “recognizes that the carbon and material footprint of the people who have more is choking the opportunities of the people who have less.”
Safe, stable, nurturing relationships with caring adults are the keys to buffering adversity and building resilience in the early years of human development. The relational health of our children, families, and communities will determine how well our children flourish in the face of ecological crisis. Addressing the “toll of social isolation”, improving the health of our associational life, and supporting parents with young children to build healthy relationships with their children and other adults are critical to building our stores of resilience to withstand the ecological threats our children will face.
In a talk for the Long Now Foundation, philosopher Roman Krznaric diagnosed the drivers of short-term thinking that keep us from acting in the best interests of our descendants while identifying workable strategies for fostering the habits of long-term responsibility across government and society.
The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Agricultural and Cultural by Wendell Berry
Included in this collection is one of my favorite Berry essays, “Solving for Pattern” which concerns “the irony of agricultural methods that destroy, first, the health of the soil and finally, the health of human communities” and the kinds of bad solutions that “act destructively upon larger patterns” and the good solutions that are in harmony with the larger patterns of nature and human communities. Anyone working to solve systemic problems from climate change to child care should know this essay well.