Loving a child is a great leap of faith. Whether that child is born of you or not, however they come, they are the risk that love always carries. Loss to yourself is one level of grief; immeasurably worse is a loss sustained by your child.
When a child comes to you, you want to give them the world. When little, you take them to beautiful outdoor places, hoping they will build memories of the beauty of the natural world.
Nurturing children during these uncertain times of shifting climate will require imagination and work on the parents’ part if they are to prepare the children under their care, to empower them to be resilient, but also to keep them safe.
Climate Change Will Harm Children, Says Ohio Environmental Council
The Ohio Environmental Council and Policy Matters Ohio released a report concluding that children face unique challenges due to “extreme heat and precipitation, impacts on air quality, and changing patterns of infectious disease”.
Air Quality
“Children are particularly vulnerable to respiratory harm caused by poor air quality,” says the report. “They breathe more air than adults do, when adjusting for body weight, so they take in a higher proportion of pollutants relative to their size.”
Asthma is on the rise among children. Checking for local air quality can guide you. Restricting outdoor activities when pollutants are high can help. Indoor air can be maintained by filtration. Climate change also lengthens allergy seasons.
Heatwaves
Children are at greater risk of getting sick or even dying due to extreme heat for a few reasons. Their bodies aren’t as good as adults’ at regulating their internal temperature; they typically spend more time outside than adults; and the youngest rely completely on others to keep them safe. The potentially life-threatening effects of extreme heat include dehydration, hyperthermia and fever, according to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Extreme heat can also harm kidney function or cause kidney failure.
According to this Ohio report, extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related death in the United States. Most of us are not used to this: however, heat is already a factor in many place where it has not been in the past, so as parents we need to be aware.
Water Contamination
Climate crisis causes flooding which results in agricultural runoff with fertilizer/herbicide/pesticide contaminates as well as bacteria. Boiling water will not work with all contaminants.
Infectious Diseases
While climate change may lead to the extinction of some species, its effects will encourage the proliferation of others. Higher annual average temperatures—in particular, warmer winters—have been linked to increasing populations of black-legged deer ticks, the primary transmitters of Lyme disease...Warmer winters have also been linked to increased incidence of West Nile Virus...likely because the disease’s primary carriers, mosquitoes, reproduce more successfully in warmer climates, according to the CDC.
Good health practices, such as frequent washing of hands and not sharing drinks/food, should become a standard at home and in schools.
Security and reassurance
Children are usually much more aware than is generally thought; however, a parent needs to remember that what a child of any age may be looking for in a parent is reassurance that there will be a future. It may be altered.
An excellent resource is the Yale Climate Communications Blog by Sara Peach which is a kind of updated “Dear Abby” for readers questions. This particular response is to a mother with a two and four-year-old on what she needs to teach her children about climate change to help them be resilient in the future. (Do visit this page for great information.)
Sara Peach describes four basic skills that children will need.
1. The Facts.
As your kids grow old enough to start asking questions about climate change (or hearing about it from other children), consider metering out information in small, age-appropriate doses. Here’s how science journalist Michelle Nijhuis talks about the topic with her 10-year-old daughter: “As a parent, I approach the subject of climate change much like I approach the subject of sex: While I answer all questions, without hesitation and in full, I make sure not to answer more questions than I’m asked.”
Suggested sites are NASA’s Climate Kids page. She also suggests a list of children’s books regarding climate.
2. Practical Skills.
The list can quickly become overwhelming, so I’d let your children’s interests guide the skills they learn. Your kids love “helping” in the kitchen? Great, they can learn how to preserve produce. Or your children are constantly “operating” on dolls? They get signed up for a first-aid class.
Gardening (including seed saving and preserving food), 4H projects where you raise rabbits or hens, or any other hobby activity which may be turned into a survival skill is encouraged.
3. Healthy interpersonal and emotional skills.
People who are part of strong, well-functioning communities are better able to withstand trauma, according to an American Psychological Association report. “Nearly every study of resilience emphasizes the importance of strengthening the social networks within communities and encouraging communities to create patterns of working together to overcome adversity, whether physical or psychological,” the report’s authors write.
Rather than the family protector fully armed and fighting off the neighbors, the survivalist is one who has an empathetic and cooperative relationship with a community. children should be taught to be socially responsible with the ability to negotiate and compromise with others.
4. How to be an engaged citizen
{Joining groups which are actively working for change) will serve two purposes. One, you’ll model for your children how to build stronger communities.(Two), by taking them along to town hall meetings, you’ll show them how to work with others to overcome problems.
Please check in and let us know how you are doing.
What have you discovered about dealing with your own children during these turbulent times?
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