How Do You Parent in a Climate Crisis? Bridget Shirvell Has Some Ideas

Bridget Shirvell, author of Parenting in A Climate Crisis – which grew out of her eponymous newsletter – talks raising eco-conscious children, making the food-climate connection, and the importance of going outside.

SF: How did you end up on the climate beat?

BS: From a young age, I was always really aware of it. My parents had rental properties down in the outer banks of North Carolina when I was a kid, and so from a young age, I was very aware of the impact. We would see the beach eroding. We would pay very close attention to hurricanes because that was important to know what was happening to the house. So I was very aware of the earth-human connection from a young age.

And then as I got older, I initially got into food systems reporting, and that expanded into overall climate. I would talk to different farmers and they would mention things that were happening with the weather, that they were having to harvest their food earlier; or chefs would be worried that they couldn’t get certain ingredients. And so that really made me think about everything else. And after I had my child, it expanded to: how are we living?

SF: Who did you have in mind when you wrote the book? 

BS: I think I started writing this book really for me because I was like: how do I do this? There’s a lot of information right on how we talk to our kids about the climate crisis. And I think, because I’m somebody whose job is to communicate, that wasn’t my concern.

My concern was more the day-to-day of: What do I do? What is she [my daughter] going to need? And so I really wrote this book for me. And then for people who have asked me questions over the years. Should the kids go outside in this temperature? What type of laundry detergent do you use? Not that the book gets into those specific, nitty-gritty details, but I think it gives people the ability to figure out how to make those decisions for themselves and to think more broadly about the types of skills that people are going to need.

SF: A lot of the book feels very much geared towards an American audience. Is that intended?

BS: I think so. Some of it was also geared towards a British audience. When you read the book, you’ll realise I actually did a lot of the writing when I was spending a summer in England. And my literary agent is based in England, so she kind of pushed me to make it a little broader.

But I would say because the politics of climate change are so different in the US compared to a lot of Western countries, I do think it trends a little more American.

SF: Do you feel that in Europe, people are more climate-literate?

BS: I think they are more climate literate. I also think there’s more of an acceptance that we should just be doing these things because they’re the right thing to do. 

SF: The book’s subtitle is ‘a handbook for turning fear into action’. Why the term handbook?

BS: All the chapters build on each other, but I think the book is designed so that if you’re really into food, if that’s what you think is most accessible to you, you could just read that chapter on food, and then you could focus on that and maybe pick up the book again when you’re ready to tackle a different subject. Or if you’re getting a new dog, there’s a whole chapter on pets and animals – you could pick up that chapter and then go on to something else. 

SF: So this is a book that people might pick up and put down. It’s not necessarily a ‘read it from beginning to end’? Almost like a cookbook?

BS: I wanted it to be something that people could refer back to, especially as their children grow. Different things are geared towards different ages. Or, you might end up having a kid who’s interested in food or really wants to become to join a youth protest so you might think: “I’m gonna go back and read that chapter and see if there’s anything else I should be thinking about or doing.”

I really wanted the book to be designed so that people can refer back to it, write in it, like, highlight whatever stands out to them and hopefully share it with other people. That’s a big focus of the book, talking to other people about why you’re taking these climate actions, and that’s kind of how we move everything forward, especially here in the US.

SF: A lot of the book features quotes from many parents who work in climate, especially mothers. Whose responsibility is it to educate kids about the climate? Is it the mom’s responsibility? 

BS: I think that’s a good point because there’s so many things going on, and then it’s kind of like, oh, but the world’s also on fire. Is anybody doing anything about that? And what should I be doing about that? And so this is kind of coming from a place of, it’s not necessarily your responsibility, but a lot of parents, especially moms, have this worry about what is happening, even if it’s something they don’t always voice out loud to others.

So I hope that what people take away is that there are a lot of things that they’re already doing in their everyday life, that it’s just changing slightly the way you talk about things, or changing one little thing at a time that will help you raise kids who are more climate literate than most of the current adult population.

SF: Is there a worry that we will depress kids with these conversations? A pushback I get a lot is that climate is not fun.

BS: Maybe this isn’t the right way to think about it, because I think there’s this trend to be very protective of childhood, for it to be this magical world and in some ways, I am protective of that. But I also see my job as a parent is to raise a child who’s going to be able to face things that come her way, whatever they are, and so in that sense, I don’t really worry about depressing her, because this is the reality, and I think when I’m presenting it in a way that hopefully isn’t scary – not that I always get it right – she sees that this is just something that’s happening. And these are the tools that I have to get through whatever this is. I’m teaching them how to live in the world, and bad things are occasionally going to happen, and they need to see us handle that.

SF: It’s very embarrassing to admit but I sometimes feel that my older child is not that interested in the climate cause despite everything I have tried to do, from raising him plant-based to exposing him to nature as much as possible to talking to him about all the things. What can you do if your kid isn’t interested? 

BS: I think for some people, it just probably takes a little longer. And I also think you have to pick your battles with kids. My [six-year-old] daughter doesn’t eat any meat, and that actually was her choice. But she does love dairy, and I struggled a lot with cow’s milk, as she calls it, versus oat milk. And she just will not drink the oat milk if we only have oat milk at home – she refuses, and she understands why, she understands the environmental differences. We’ve talked about that, but for her, it’s like: “You know what? I just don’t like the way alternative milks taste, and I do a lot of other things that are good for the planet.”

I think part of it is letting kids gravitate towards their own interests. At a certain point, your son will find other things that light him up and that you can connect to the environment. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet for him. I think you keep going back to: “These are our values, and this is why we’re doing these things, even if other people don’t do them.” And as they grow up, they learn what their own values are, too, and they might be slightly different from yours, but I think, in the long run, they will end up there.

SF: Do you ever feel hopeless? And if so, how do you deal with it?

BS: I feel hopeless lots of times. Just being in the supermarket and seeing all that plastic gives me a lot of anxiety. When my daughter comes home from school on Valentine’s Day with bags of plastic toys, I will also feel a little hopeless. I think I just try to take it one moment at a time, but also, the more I talk to other people, the better I feel. 

Sonalie Figueiras: What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Bree Shirvell: I think the hardest part was really kind of narrowing down the experiences of the people working in climate that I spoke to because while I really wanted this book to be obviously from my perspective, I wanted somebody picking it up to see themselves and the other parents that I spoke to in the book. And so I think it was hard for me to curate that group, there are so many people doing this work, and I think they all should be celebrated and applauded that that was kind of hard to like winnow down the information.

SF: What’s the most powerful lever for getting people to act on climate change, and is it different for kids and adults?

BS: Oh, that’s a good question. I don’t know if I would say it’s the most powerful, but I think the most accessible one is really thinking about food and where your food is coming from, just because we all have to eat. I think it’s very easy for both kids and adults to make that food-climate connection in a way, even if you think just like thinking about something simple, such as food waste. That’s something that you can see every day. So once you understand those emissions, I think that’s a good first step to thinking about how I’m going to reduce my food waste. 

The food system is a third of all climate emissions. There is a lot of movement we can make there. Thinking about it from a food perspective just kind of builds on other things because it’s also an easy way to talk to other adults. Everybody has to make dinner for their kids or make school lunches, right? There are so many things you can talk about like trying to reduce the single-use plastic in my kid’s lunch or thinking about snack ideas… it’s such an easy way to talk about these issues.

SF: One of the topics that come up again and again in the book is the link between spending time outdoors in nature and developing climate awareness – or what I call climate literacy. What do we do for kids who have very limited access to nature?

BS: I think it’s a very different type of nature, but I still think getting them outside, there are still lessons you can learn. You can talk about the temperature at different times of the year or the urban heat island effect, so they can start to understand: “Oh, it’s hotter here. It’s a little cooler here, because there are some trees.” You can look into growing some plants on your windowsill, some herbs or some flowers – anything that gets you in some way connected to all your senses so you can touch it and can feel it, or taste it. 

I wish more schools would make that a priority. I think that’s slowly starting to shift. I know here [in the US] at least, more schools are thinking about: “Oh, we’re going to take a long hike on a Wednesday as part of our curriculum.” And that’s been really cool to see that shift starting to happen, and people realising that outdoor time is important.

SF: It feels like we are in a new reality where you’ve got a new US administration that is scrubbing climate from the rhetoric and from government websites. Whose responsibility is it to create change and to keep people informed about the climate crisis?

BS: In terms of whose responsibility is, I would love to say it’s our institutions, right? It’s schools, it’s government, it’s news media. But even before this new administration started, mainstream media so often doesn’t make that connection between climate and natural disasters, or with air travel.

We had stories about turbulence, and people weren’t talking about how this is also an effect of climate change – the world heating up makes turbulence worse.

I just think that for so long, nobody’s been doing it. So it really is up to everybody, especially those who are more concerned and more focused on climate education to talk about it in their day-to-day lives with their neighbours and their kids. And I think that does eventually trickle down and make it more mainstream. 

SF: Do you buy this idea that we need to ‘rebrand’ climate? For example, a lot of people in climate tech now calling it the transition economy instead. 

BS: You know, that’s a hard question. I am kind of against this whole idea of transition. To me, it feels a little bit like giving up. But at the same time, I’m also kind of at the point where, whatever works. If that gets more people on board that we’re calling it a transition economy, then, let’s do it. As long as it doesn’t turn into greenwashing, I think I’m okay with that.

Parenting In A Climate Crisis: A Handbook for Turning Fear Into Action by Bridget Shirvell (Workman Publishing/Hachette Book Group) is available now at bookstores across the US and Canada for $17.99.