如何与孩子谈论气候变化

如何与孩子谈论气候变化

A few months ago, I was standing at the sink in the kitchen. Suddenly my daughter, who's seven, said, "You're lucky you got to have your adulthood before the planet was completely destroyed by climate change."

几个月前，我站在厨房的水槽边。突然，我七岁的女儿说:“你能在地球完全被气候变化摧毁之前步入成年，已经很幸运了。”

I didn't know this was on her mind. I hadn't spent all that much time talking to her about it.

我不知道她在想这个。我没花那么多时间和她谈这件事。

And the worst part, somehow, is that her voice wasn't full of emotion. It was completely matter-of-fact. Like, oh well, we don't have time to stop for ice cream, and I don't get to grow up in a world with a functioning ecosystem.

而最糟糕的是，她的声音并没有充满感情。这完全是事实。就像，哦，好吧，我们没有时间停下来吃冰淇淋，我也没有在一个运转良好的生态系统中成长。

How do you comfort a child when the science suggests she's correct?

当科学表明孩子是正确的时候，你如何安慰他们?

1. Break the silence

打破沉默

For a growing number of families all over the world, there's no avoiding it: Climate change is already at their front door.

对于全世界越来越多的家庭来说，这是不可避免的：气候变化已经摆在他们的面前。

Others, who are privileged enough to have evaded the direct impacts so far, seem to be struggling to deal with the constant barrage of anxiety-provoking news about the environment. And one of the biggest barriers among that group is emotional.

其他人，他们有幸躲过了目前为止的直接影响，似乎正在努力应对不断引发焦虑的环境新闻。其中最大的障碍就是情绪化。

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, is working on a book for MIT Press about climate change and reproductive choices.

马修·施耐德-梅尔森是新加坡耶鲁-新加坡国立大学环境研究的助理教授，他正在为麻省理工学院出版社撰写一本关于气候变化和生育选择的书。

He says, despite the fact that the climate crisis literally affects everyone on earth, too many of us are sitting alone with our worries, our faces lit by our phone screens in the middle of the night. "We seem to be more scared of upsetting the conversation than we are scared about climate change."

他说，尽管气候危机确实影响到了地球上的每一个人，但我们中有太多人正独自一人面对忧虑，我们的脸在半夜被手机屏幕照亮。”我们似乎更害怕扰乱对话，而不是害怕气候变化。”

Mary DeMocker, an activist and artist in Eugene, Ore., is the author of The Parents' Guide To Climate Revolution, a book focusing on simple actions families can take both personally and collectively. "The emotional aspect is actually, I think, one of the biggest aspects of climate work right now," she says.

俄勒冈州尤金的活动家兼艺术家玛丽·德莫克著有《家长应对气候变化指南》一书，该书关注的是家庭可以从个人和集体两方面采取的简单行动。她说:“我认为，情感方面实际上是目前气候工作中最重要的方面之一。”

2. Give your kids the basic facts

告诉你的孩子基本事实

NPR found in a poll earlier this year that fully 84 percent of parents, including a majority of both Democrats and Republicans, agreed that children should be learning about climate change. But, only 45 percent of parents, just over half as many, said they had actually talked to their own kids about it.

美国国家公共电台(NPR)在今年早些时候的一项民意调查中发现，84%的父母，包括大多数民主党人和共和党人，同意让孩子们了解气候变化。但是，只有45%的家长，也就是一半多一点的家长，说他们确实跟自己的孩子谈过这件事。

You know your kids best, so try to make sure the level of information you're giving them is appropriate and not too graphic or upsetting. But at the same time, we can't always control what they may be hearing elsewhere, so it's good to be proactive with the simple facts.

你最了解你的孩子，所以尽量确保你给他们的信息是适当的，而不是太生动或令人不安的。但与此同时，我们不能总是控制他们在其他地方可能听到的消息，所以积极面对简单的事实是有好处的。

3. Get outdoors

走出户外

Dawn Danby lives in Oakland California and has spent 20 years working in sustainable design, technology and business. She also has a 6-year-old daughter, a "fierce little person," and she doesn't want her to be too scared by what's happening to the planet.

道恩·丹比住在加州奥克兰，从事可持续设计、技术和商业工作已有20年。她还有一个6岁的女儿，是个“凶猛的小人儿”，她不想让自己被地球上发生的事情吓着。

"I've encountered lots and lots of people who've been really traumatized as they've encountered" ecological crisis, she says.

她说:“我遇到过很多很多人，他们在遭遇生态危机时受到了很大的创伤。”

So Danby takes a different approach. She and her daughter spend as much time as possible exploring the outdoors, from old-growth forests to vegetable gardens.

所以丹比采取了不同的方法。她和女儿花尽可能多的时间探索户外，从原始森林到菜园。

You don't have to live near mountains or the ocean to expose your kids to nature. You can start with ants on the sidewalk. Dawn encourages her daughter to "look at the bugs and think about what the bugs are doing ... everything has a role to play here."

你不必住在山脉或海洋附近，让你的孩子接触大自然。你可以从人行道上的蚂蚁开始。道恩鼓励女儿“看看虫子，想想虫子在做什么……”这里的一切都可以发挥作用。”

4. Focus on Feelings

关注情感

In a recent poll in The Washington Post, 7 in 10 teenagers said climate change will harm their generation — that was a bit more than older folks.

在《华盛顿邮报》最近的一项民意调查中，十分之七的青少年认为气候变化将危害他们这一代人，这比老年人多一点。