Parenting in a Changing Climate: Tools for Cultivating Resilience, Taking Action, and Practicing Hope in the Face of Climate Change

by Elizabeth Bechard

And there is no more needed music than this: our children need parents who are actively working to build their confidence as activists in the climate movement. Our children need parents who hold their representatives accountable for climate action, who are students of and advocates for environmental justice, who write postcards and organize community discussions. Our children need parents who show up on the front lines of nonviolent direct action protests, even if they’ve never attended a protest before in their lives. Our children need parents who are willing to start small, and then think—and act—big. Our children need parents who fully grasp the gravity and possibility of this moment in time, and who are willing to do whatever it takes to become the kind of people who can meet this moment with the ferocious love of those who know that everything is on the line. Making climate action a high-priority habit is a vote of hope for the future, an acknowledgement that indulging in pessimism is a luxury we cannot afford. It’s a way of promising a generation of children that we won’t give up on them,