Causes of climate change for kids

The main problem that exists when trying to explain to a child what climate change is comes from the word “change” itself rather than from the fact that it affects the climate. For a child, the world is not changing, but static. In most cases, on a child’s time scale, changes do not exist, but everything repeats cyclically, creating a static world within those cyclical changes. In this way, the simple fact of considering that things may be different, is already a challenge for your mind, so you will have to start there. In this way, the first thing to do is explain to the child that the world is not static., that is to say, that “it is not still”, that things change. What happens is that they change very slowly and, therefore, we usually do not realize it.

On the other hand, for a child to understand what climate change means, they must have a mind map of the world they live in, and that mind map must be planet Earth. When a child understands that the world in which he lives is much larger than his immediate reality, he can begin to think big and, consequently, understand that the scale of the world’s space is at least as large as the same planet. In this way, once the child understands that he lives on a planet called Earth and that this planet changes despite the fact that many times we do not realize it, we will have the necessary bases to be able to explain the concept of climate change .

It is essential to set examples that children understand. If we talk about the greenhouse effect and CO2, it is most likely that not only do they not understand it, but we also fail to get their attention . On the other hand, if we talk about animal species, for example about how to destroy a forest “leaves the panda without a home”, the child will be able to perfectly assimilate the impact of this human action. That is, the child will understand the relationship between destroying a forest and destroying an animal species, and then he will be able to understand that this change is negative.

As you can see, choosing examples that are easy to understand for a child’s mind will be one of the fundamental keys that will allow the explanation to be understood. Once different examples that can be understood by the child are accumulated (destruction of forests, extinction of animal and plant species, accumulation of garbage in landfills, water pollution, etc.) we will have created the idea that there are “bad changes” that affect to the planet and, then, we will be in a position to address climate change as a concept.

Once the child has understood that there are those actions that damage the ecosystem and the planet, they will be in a position to explain that there is one of them that is the worst of all because it affects the entire planet at the same time: climate change.

Simply explained : “climate change is the increase in the temperature of the entire planet because there is a part of the air that takes a lot of heat and that is bad for everyone because it does other bad things such as causing the sea level to rise, which glacial ice melts, or droughts occur with their consequent famines, etc. ”

At this point, it will be necessary to answer each of the questions that the child asks since, the perspective is so wide, that the questions will crowd into the child’s mind in an accelerated way and, it is important to answer them, with time and with patience, as well as with a language understandable to the child .

This aspect will be important when the child understands the causes of climate change since, ultimately, what you want to do is understand that there are human actions that produce climate change , that is, that make “the temperature of the air is higher and for that reason those bad things are produced “.

This is probably the most difficult question to answer and one that the child will undoubtedly ask once his understanding realizes that there is something wrong that must be fought against. In this sense, it is best to approach the question from a constructive perspective , telling it that there are “good people” who do do things to stop climate change and to counteract it. Likewise, it is a good time to create ecological awareness in the child’s mind , since they will be able to understand that “there are things that are good for the planet (such as recycling garbage) and bad things (such as throwing garbage on the ground ) “.

This is undoubtedly a simplistic answer, but when approaching the problem of climate change in the mind of a child, it is more important that they understand that there are “good people” who fight against what is “bad” than simply “bad people” who do that. Keep in mind that children may not really understand how climate change can affect them in a complete perspective, and it is important that they create ecological awareness, but never fear . Therefore, a constructive and positive approach that emphasizes the “good actions” that are being carried out to counter it will be more understandable and instructive than an apocalyptic or defeatist approach.

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