How and how not to grow young activists

Environmentalist first, climate activist next.

Nov 18, 2022

Buddy spent much of his life only a few inches from Nature and became a committed Environmentalist (despite never actually being without adult supervision. See below.)

We need more environmentalists, the people who understand the detailed effects of warming on our world, who fight the hardest for climate action, and who influence others around them. In particular, when we show we are passionate about ‘the environment,’ we can find common ground with our neighbors who may bristle if the term ‘climate’ is mentioned.

THE BEST WAY TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENTALIST IS TO GROW ONE.
An early understanding of nature sticks. How do we provide that?

Nature information We can give kids some of the many learning experiences created to help parents and teachers. Among these is the Unicorn Nature Card Deck, a series of views, facts and projects intended to foster a love of nature. Staples in this genre include the National Wildlife Foundation’s Ranger Rick magazine, the National Geographic Kids site, and others. There is also a wealth of information on providing nature activities for children, and teaching them about the environment, to be found on the BBC's website.

Games Every month there seems to be another game for kids to play concerning nature, the environment, and climate change. As a former educational game designer, I can attest to the surprising effectiveness of an online or board game in getting a participant to leave saying, “I never knew!”

Camps There have always been summer nature camps, but increasingly there are shorter camping experiences focused directly on climate change, for instance the weeklong Climate Change Agents Camp in Nevada. Even more focused are camps, like Earth Island, designed to teach climate activism.

THERE’S A SECRET INGREDIENT
All these educational devices are great, but there’s one thing most of us concerned about a child’s attitude toward nature don’t understand. A study of city kids by Cornell researchers found that children who, before the age of 11, have opportunities to play in the wild—without adult supervision—perhaps on a camping vacation or in the woods or fields near their house, develop a stronger sense of environmental ethics.

Children who encounter nature only in structured settings with adults—in Scouts or school or on hunting or fishing trips—do not learn the same respect for the environment. These latter children, the majority of us, grow up with an arrogance towards nature and an overconfidence in our ability to control it.

WHY DO WE NEED MORE YOUNG ENVIRONMENTALISTS?
First, they vote. Experts say that last week it was young voters (age 18 - 29) who prevented the Red Wave expected by Republicans. That’s because:

More young people voted. Youth participation in elections has jumped in recent years. From a low of under 20% in the 2014 midterms, the youth voting rate rose to 28% in 2018. Rates for presidential elections have been even higher: 39% in 2016 and 50% in 2020.
Young people favor candidates who are concerned about climate change. Voters aged 18-29 cast a million more Democratic votes than Republican ones in the recent midterms.
The Democratic candidates they support generally champion climate actions, both to slow climate change and to protect against its damage.

And political participation by young people will continue to grow. After all, new young voters are registering, while the elderly are falling off the voter rolls. And, voters aged 18 to 29 who are climate action supporters are unlikely to change just because they start blowing out more candles.

Second, young environmentalists can become activists. There has been an explosion of youth climate organizations, from Greta Thunberg’s original Fridays for Future to the Sunrise Movement, Sustain US, and many others.

If we can get kids interested early in doing something about climate disaster, we have likely got them for life.

HOW CAN WE HELP GET THEM EARLY?
Demographics may be slowly helping, but we should push things along. Getting kids out into Mother Nature, as described by the Cornell study, should be a goal in everybody’s family.

For our neighbors’ kids, maybe we can offer to take them, perhaps as a school group, into a nearby wood or saltmarsh or meadow. But how do we let the kids interact with nature without that impediment, an adult, in the picture? How about a scavenger hunt, or a collecting contest (six different shellfish shells, photos of six different birds, the smallest creature they can find)? Or to do the research part of an essay contest to follow, maybe on “My discoveries in the marsh.” A teacher can choose an educational topic while we can design the activity so the kids are really experiencing nature with little pressure or distraction by adults or by the rigors of the assignment.

We should give them information that highlights the climate vulnerability of the natural habitat they are looking at. And, above all, we should take care that the ‘nature’ we are putting these kids into is clean, fun, and has no never-gonna-go-there-again aspects. As a puppy Buddy taught us we don’t want to lock in antipathy instead of appreciation.

We can do this!

How and how not to grow young activists

Environmentalist first, climate activist next.

Buddy spent much of his life only a few inches from Nature and became a committed Environmentalist (despite never actually being without adult supervision. See below.)

Discussion about this post