{"id":60383,"date":"2026-03-03T09:24:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/?p=60383"},"modified":"2026-03-03T09:55:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:55:23","slug":"learning-climate-lessons-from-my-5-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2026\/03\/03\/learning-climate-lessons-from-my-5-year-old\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Climate Lessons from my 5-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mom, did you know the climate is changing?<\/blockquote><\/figure>\n

I heard the worried tone in M\u00eda\u2019s voice when she said, \u201cThis feels a little like a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was cooking us dinner while she watched a cartoon that I was only half listening to, before I keyed in and realized the show was about climate change. Hearing my five-year-old\u2019s fear, I said, \u201cIs it a little scary? Do you want to turn it off? Do you want a hug?\u201d Three yeses and three nods.<\/p>\n

As we hugged, I exhaled, knowing this was a moment I had been preparing for and fearing all at once \u2015 the day my daughter asked me about climate change. I\u2019ve been doing my best to raise an environmentally aware city kid without directly talking about the climate crisis until it felt age-appropriate to do so, but with her bringing it up \u2015 now was the time.<\/p>\n

Her first reaction was alarm: \u201cMom, did you know the climate is changing? And it\u2019s happening right NOW?\u201d I could hear the palpable concern. I steadied myself because I wanted to recognize and acknowledge the seriousness of what she was learning about without amplifying the anxiety. I focused on having a calm and even voice: \u201cYes, I do know. It\u2019s a big problem, and there are a lot of people working really hard to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pace and scale of a changing climate are hard for adults to fathom, let alone a five-year-old. I explained that the changing climate was not like flipping a switch or turning on the oven \u2015 that yes, it is happening now, but it is not instantaneous, and there are still things we can and must do to address it.<\/p>\n

As we spoke, I realized that many disparate components of our lives, work, values, and practices could all be braided together in an explanation of what we can do and why. She wanted to know what SHE can do about climate change \u2015 and we talked about all the things she already does \u2015 from composting, to recycling, to conserving water and energy. I flashed to memories of myself at age 9, obsessively reading \u201c50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth<\/em>\u201d with both fear and hope. We talked about why I don\u2019t eat beef or pork, and how every food choice makes a difference. We talked about the thanks we offer before our meals (that she helped create with me) that acknowledge other people, animals, and the planet before we eat to remind us to consider them in our choices. We talked about all the things that her school does \u2015 clothing drives, composting, old crayon recycling, a school garden club \u2015 sustainability is wonderfully threaded in her curriculum. It definitely felt most tangible to talk about things in our personal lives and spheres, but we didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

Climate change is connected to all our life support systems, and we could pull on any thread and talk about the need for action in all of these domains. My husband had just purchased a used e-bike that evening. We talked about extending the useful life of objects by buying used things and passing on our old things, rather than wasting what we have or buying new. We talked about swapping car rides for e-bike rides, or bike rides, or walks \u2015 and how her dad works for the city\u2019s Department of Transportation to try and make biking and walking safer for everyone. We talked about planting trees and taking care of them, and how this is a focus of my research at the Forest Service. We talked about the need to elect leaders to our government who believe that climate change is important to address. We talked about the need for technologies like solar and wind energy and electric cars. We talked about the role that activists play, that writers play, that artists play in drawing our attention to the issue and motivating people to action. I said, \u201cthis problem is so big that it needs all kinds of people with all kinds of minds doing all kinds of jobs to help address it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we focused on positive steps, we also acknowledged grief. I could offer little comfort to her concerns over biodiversity loss. \u201cYes, many animals have gone extinct, and it is really sad.\u201d We sat with that feeling for a bit.<\/p>\n

And there are many things I *didn\u2019t* say. I didn\u2019t talk about the terrible storm last week that shut down half the subways in NYC and flooded her school\u2019s cafeteria, and how these will become more common. I didn\u2019t talk about the bad air quality from Canadian wildfires that kept us indoors for weeks this summer \u2015 and how all of this, too, is connected to climate change. I didn\u2019t talk about the billions of people living in precarity on the frontlines of climate change all around the world. I didn’t talk about injustice or inequality or privilege. We didn\u2019t talk about how all these small acts pale in comparison to the corporate and government action that is required to decarbonize. I needed to start with the positive and concrete in the face of her shock, to not frighten her, and to empower her. How will we have these many more and much harder conversations? I\u2019m not sure, but I know it will involve lifelong learning for us both.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
M\u00eda and Ricardo try out the new (to us) e-bike. Photo: Lindsay Campbell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After talking all dinner about these facets\u2014and with so much still left unsaid\u2014we decided to take a pause to go outside and try the new e-bike. The sun was beginning to set, and the air felt cool on my skin; I felt vividly alive in that moment, almost hyperreal. Afterward, our neighbor was coming into the building at the same time, and M\u00eda whispered to me, \u201cMom, tell him!!\u201d \u2015 \u201cAbout climate change?\u201d I asked. \u201cYES! You have to tell him it’s happening right now!\u201d I explained as we walked up the stairs to put her to bed that we didn\u2019t have time to discuss it with our neighbor right now, but that we would keep talking about it and working on it \u2015 for the rest of our lives.<\/p>\n

It was overwhelming, terrifying, and affirming all at once. At three years old, during the depths of the pandemic, she taught me about reciprocity, slowing down, and connecting to the non-human world<\/a>. At five, she taught me with renewed clarity about the urgency and magnitude of this climate crisis and is holding me accountable to living our values.<\/p>\n

My daughter is now on the cusp of turning 8, and I wrote these reflections a few years ago \u2015 but they still ring true.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being a powerful teacher, M\u00eda.<\/p>\n

Lindsay K. Campbell<\/strong>
\nNew York City<\/p>\n

On The Nature of Cities<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard the worried tone in M\u00eda\u2019s voice when she said, \u201cThis feels a little like a movie.\u201d I was cooking us dinner while she watched a cartoon that I was only half listening to, before I keyed in and realized the show was about climate change. Hearing my five-year-old\u2019s fear, I said, \u201cIs it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":60384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,1103,298],"tags":[43,104,649,23],"coauthors":[211],"class_list":["post-60383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-north-america","category-essay-people-and-communitites","tag-awareness","tag-climate-change","tag-educationknowledgelearning","tag-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60383"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60391,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60383\/revisions\/60391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60383"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=60383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}