From The New Daily (18/2/25)…
Our kids have questions about climate change. Now there are answers
Tom’s parents were packing to evacuate from bushfires in regional Victoria five years ago when they realised they couldn’t find Tom, who was only 2½.
After a frantic search, they found him at the bottom of the driveway. He was wearing just a nappy, his sandals and bike helmet and was poised over his balance bike, backpack at the ready.
He had loaded it up with what a two-year-old thinks of as life’s essentials: His favourite toys, and his nappy cream.
Tom was so frightened that he had got himself ready to escape. Bush kids learn early about the power of Australia’s climate.
And our kids, even our small kids, are noticing that the climate is changing. Bush kids, closer to the environment, are peppering grownups with questions about what hotter summers are doing to the plants around them; about why parents at a local ski centre are losing their jobs due to less snow.
Research tells us that 89 per cent of Australian kids aged 12 and 13 say climate change is probably or definitely something we should worry about; 38 per cent of Aussie teenagers have moderate, increasing or persistent worry about climate change.
We often hear questions about the climate from our own children too.
As parents, we looked around for engaging, up-to-date, age-appropriate climate explainers that would answer children’s questions. But we realised there was a gap.
So we created Climate Kids, a YouTube video series where we answer questions that come directly from primary school-aged children. We have just launched the first season, with five episodes answering kids’ real questions about climate change….
Climate Kids videos are hosted on YouTube and are open source, free to be used by media or teachers. Also find updates on YouTube and Instagram
Dr Lily O’Neill is a legal researcher with Melbourne Climate Futures at Melbourne Law School and is co-host of Climate Kids. Dr Linden Ashcroft is a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne and the series’ other co-host