Nature Quest: The Climate-Kid Question
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What is the kid question in the context of climate change?
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey everyone, Emily Kwong here, and welcome back to Nature Quest, our monthly segment that brings you a question from a fellow short waver who's paying attention to the environment and how our choices shape the world.
I used to travel around the world with Al Jazeera as a documentary producer. Alessandra Rahm is a journalist. And a lot of those stories, even if they didn't start out focusing on climate, there were climate narratives there because so many stories are climate stories.
The stories Alessandra covered at the time were unfolding in other countries, in Thailand and in Canada. But over time, she watched these climate narratives get closer to where she's from, Puerto Rico, Flint, Michigan, and eventually to her home state of California.
A house I was living in, we had to evacuate because of a wildfire threat. But now that's kind of a threat that everyone around here lives with.
And more recently, Alessandra has had other reasons to be thinking about the future. Because a couple weeks ago, she and her partner had a kid.
It's 8 a.m. We woke up how many times last night? Three. Three. Good. You know, everything has changed in the last two weeks for me. I can only think in like two and a half to three hour increments for when I'm feeding her or when I'm trying to get sleep, which is not often. So life becomes very moment by moment.
How has Alessandra Ram's perspective changed since becoming a parent?
Zara, wake up.
Alessandra has always wanted to be a parent. But as a climate journalist, she worries about the future her daughter will have on a warming planet. And we know a lot of you short-wavers carry this worry too.
I mean, the world doesn't feel like it's in a great place, I'll admit, in addition to the climate crisis. So you're just aware that you might have more work to do to set your kid up to be in a place where they can thrive.
So today's quest, kids. Having and raising a kid can feel like such a fraught decision these days. So what do experts have to say about it? And for people who do have and care for kids, how do you raise them in a way that's good for them and for the planet? You're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
What are the emotional challenges of raising kids in a warming world?
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So joining me in the studio for this Nature Quest is producer Hannah Chin, my fellow Nature Quest co-creator.
Hey, Emily. And today we're going to talk about what some people consider the third rail of climate change, the kids question. True. True. True. True. True. I mean, the majority of Gen Zers report that they're worried or anxious about climate change, period.
What do experts say about the environmental impact of having children?
And more broadly, a Pew Research survey last year found that of folks under 50 who don't plan to have kids, more than a quarter of them say concerns about the environment and climate change are a major factor in that. And I really wanted to figure out where is this concern coming from? Like, who or what told us that having kids was a major contributor to climate change? So I started reporting on this back when I was working on the Gimlet podcast, How to Save a Planet. And I found a bunch of recent articles, like in the past five or so years, that all cited the exact same paper. It was published in 2017 in the academic journal Environmental Research Letters. It's called The Climate Mitigation Gap.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the kid question in the context of climate change?
0:00–2:09
2
How has Alessandra Ram's perspective changed since becoming a parent?
2:09–3:05
3
What are the emotional challenges of raising kids in a warming world?
3:05–4:31
4
What do experts say about the environmental impact of having children?
4:31–9:36
5
How does population growth relate to climate change?
9:36
6
What actions can individuals take to mitigate climate change?
7:57–9:44
7
Why is the conversation around kids and climate so controversial?
9:44–11:13
8
What is the role of societal beliefs in the climate-kid discussion?
11:13–16:19
Speakers
9 identifiedMore from Short Wave
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