Explaining climate change to kids

Image source: nytimes.com

The way children think about the world is changing. But they're not just seeing it through rose-colored glasses anymore. Each day carries new challenges and opportunities that make understanding climate change more important for their generation. In this blog post, Janique Goff Madison discusses climate change in a manner that children will understand.

NASA defines climate change as the change in average conditions in a particular region over an extended period. NASA scientists have observed and discovered that Earth's surface has started getting warmer throughout the years, with many of the recorded warmest periods happening in the last two decades. To understand climate change better, one must know the difference between climate and weather. Weather refers to the conditions outside, at present, in a particular area. Climate refers to the conditions in a certain region that are anticipated during particular seasons or moments in a year.

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The median long-term changes over the planet are regarded as global climate change. This is indicated by shrinking mountains, ice melting at faster rates, shifting plant and flower blooming seasons, and rising sea levels. While the Earth's climate had always been changing, long before humans existed, the changes have been more rapid than before, at least over the last 150 years.

Janique Goff Madison notes that even with a future as dim as what experts expect the planet to have, adults must not sow fear in the minds of children, instead educate them on what they can and should do to save the planet.