How I Talk to My Daughter About Climate 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 reading.
My daughter is 9—9 and a half, she would tell you—and she’s curious about many things. She’s curious about dragons and hyenas, prime numbers and royal marriages. She’s curious about robots and religion and race and gender. She wants to know why kids can’t vote; she wants to know if there’s any news about the Mueller investigation.
photo credit: Asian Development Bank