Why Young Kids and Climate?
November 14, 2022
Hello! It’s been a minute.
I’m restarting my newsletter to begin sharing, on a monthly basis, reflections and insights about the intersection between early childhood and climate change.
In the middle of October, I began a new role as Senior Fellow at the think tank Capita (which has been hosting this newsletter since its inception). My primary job is to oversee the build-out of a new global philanthropic fund we’re calling the Childhood Climate Fund, which would be the first fund in the world to focus on the intersection of these two issues. If successful, the Fund will launch in Fall 2023 as its own entity and begin grantmaking shortly thereafter.
So, Elliot, why early childhood and climate change?
The short answer is that I think policymakers and parents underestimate both how dangerous climate change can be for young children, and the potential power for both the early childhood and climate justice movements in forging an alliance. There’s a silence, or at least a quietude, that needs to be broken.
Here’s just one example: air pollution. Young children – those prenatal through age 8 – it turns out, are quite vulnerable to particulate matter in the air. More vulnerable, even, than tweens and teens, much less adults. Why? It’s biology, both on risk and impact.
Risk: young kids breathe in and out up to three times more often every minute than you or me. They are also famously short, so their respiration is occurring closer to the ground. Know where particulate matter concentrates? The ground. Know what traps it there? Heat.
Impact: young kids’ developing brains and bodies can take heavy blows from pollution. This isn’t just about respiratory illnesses like asthma, though that’s certainly part of the problem. Particulate matter causes all manner of internal inflammation, and there are even suggestive links between exposure to air pollution and later mental illness.
Air quality is also an example of an issue that’s made far worse by climate change. Thanks to global warming, air quality is worsening problem worldwide, and the U.S. – which made a ton of progress around clean air in the past half-century – has seen a fairly dramatic backslide in the past five years. If you live anywhere in the western half of the country, you know how long and intense wildfire seasons have become, while extreme heatwaves bake the air into what one group calls a “chemical soup.” (yum)
That’s before getting into the impacts of climate-enhanced storms on family stress and displacement, the flooding out or burning down or air conditioning breakdowns of child care centers and pediatric clinics, the ways in which the changing climate is changing the experience of childhood altogether.
So, when I think about something like early childhood’s focus on school readiness, I can’t let us continue down that path without reckoning with the impacts of climate change and the sector’s role in adapting to and helping mitigate the ecological crisis. I truly believe we have a ceiling on our efforts without addressing climate change.
And I can’t let those in the climate movement continue to largely ignore the effects on young children: in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, although children are mentioned a handful of times amid the 3,645 pages(!), there is literally zero mention of early childhood, child development, or related terms. Advocates have been calling for a greater focus on early childhood during the Conference of Parties (COP) currently happening in Egypt.
Philanthropy has a key role to play here – at its best, philanthropy can be the spark that brings together new ideas and builds stronger movements.
Indeed, it’s not all doom-and-gloom. I think we can and must hold the twin ideas that climate change poses the gravest threat to child well-being and that we have an enormous opportunity to both safeguard and improve childhood moving forward. I am, in the end, hopeful!
Actions that make cities and towns safer for young children benefit everyone – cleaner air, more shade, and greener communities have positive ripple effects. Similarly, mobilizing parents to fight climate change is the same organizing foundation needed to fight for a better child care system. The two movements have wonderful assets to share with one another, and bringing them together will have a multiplier effect toward the goals of each. The Early Years Climate Action Task Force, which I helped to set up, is already moving these two areas closer.
Even over the past months of working on the Fund, I have met so many incredible advocates and thought leaders who are thinking about early childhood and the climate. In particular, leaders from Central and South America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region have been pioneering ways to put new emphasis on the nexus. I look forward to continuing to listen and learn.
Through this newsletter, I hope to bring you along on the journey. I’ll share information about young children and the climate, groups you should know that are working on the issue, and progress with the Childhood Climate Fund. If you have thoughts or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at elliot@capita.org. Thanks so much!
-Elliot
P.S. It’s probably obvious, but this work is additive to my child care advocacy – that fight is still live, and I’m not going anywhere!
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this! Please feel free to email me at elliot@capita.org with thoughts, recommendations, or reactions!