Can Love Save Us? Engaging Parents in the Climate Fight

Children are often invoked in rhetoric about the climate crisis. Warnings about “the world we leave our children” are common from scientists, activists, and policymakers, and many parents and grandparents worry about the future faced by those we love most. Yet in the battle to end fossil fuel pollution, many parents have limited understanding of the current and future health risks their children face. In addition, clean energy is not seen by most parents as a public health intervention for children, nor does it have the type of broad support that measures such as car seats, vaccines, and infant sleeping position have. This panel will discuss how doctors, non-profits, and the media can convey to parents the urgency of this moment for children and what specific steps we must take to preserve their future. Topics to be addressed may include: • How can physicians best convey information about the dangers of fossil fuels and the health benefits of clean energy to children? • What are the barriers to parent activism, and best ways for them to make a difference? • Lessons from parent activist groups on building a parent/grandparent army of activists. • The media’s role and responsibility in explaining what our current trajectory means for children, and how to change it. • Activating vs. deactivating messages for parents. • Can children’s welfare be a politically and socially unifying message? • Is there a role for advertising or public service messages aimed at parents? • The importance of raising voices from different communities. • How other parental education campaigns changed public attitudes: anti-littering, anti-drunk driving, “back to sleep,” car seats, secondhand smoke. Panelists: • Anne Therese Gennari, speaker, podcaster, and author of The Climate Optimist • Dominique Browning, co-founder and director, Moms Clean Air Force • Lisa Patel, executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health • Debra Hendrickson, author of The Air They Breathe: A Pediatrician on the Frontlines of Climate Change • Jenny Zimmer, co-executive director of Mothers Out Front