BAMOS April 2025
18 Article
Our kids have questions about climate change. We are giving them answers
Dr Lily O’ Neill, University of Melbourne( lily. oneill @ unimelb. edu. au) Dr Linden Ashcroft, Univeristy of Melbourne( linden. ashcroft @ unimelb. edu. au)
Linden Ashcroft and Lily O ' Neil. Credit: Karen Kissane
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 two and a half.
After a frantic search, they found him at the bottom of the driveway. He was wearing just a nappy, sandals, bike helmet and was poised over his balance bike with 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 prepared 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, who are closer to the environment, are peppering grownups with questions about what hotter summers are doing to the plants around them and 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, ageappropriate 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.
Tom was so frightened about bushfires that he had prepared to escape. Picture: Supplied