WHEN my daughter was five, I read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to her. Much of it is about unrestrained development and damage to nature. It is sad, and she cried at times. But it is also hopeful. Its message is that, in the end, we have a choice 鈥� an opportunity remains to save our environment, but it is up to us to act.
My generation 鈥� in particular, our politicians 鈥� have so far failed to act sufficiently. We haven鈥檛 done what is necessary to avert the threat posed by climate change. If fossil fuel use continues as now, we will warm our planet to dangerous levels , having released too much carbon dioxide to avoid this. We cannot, as some hope, wait for a more environmentally aware generation to follow and solve the problem, as in The Lorax.
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And yet children do have a role to play. They have the for the better.
It is this potential to engage across the generations that helped inspire , a book I co-wrote with Megan Herbert, an accomplished children鈥檚 author and illustrator. We have tried to create a mutual learning experience for parents and children.
Our hero is a girl called Sophia, who is upset by creatures appearing at her door. They have been displaced by the impact of climate change on their habitat and are searching for a new home.
At first, she is frustrated by the onslaught of uninvited guests. But as she learns their stories, she becomes increasingly concerned about them and sympathetic to their plight. She decides that she must do something. She makes signs and leads a demonstration, complains to local officials, rallies friends and fellow townspeople and ultimately takes her case all the way to the president.
As someone who is dedicated to conveying climate change science and its implications, I am always looking for new ways to talk about it and new audiences to reach out to. Younger children in the 5 to 10-year-old target age group for the book will enjoy the story on its own. Older children will also benefit from the book鈥檚 second part, which provides some of the scientific backstory of how climate change is impacting the characters. The final third is an action plan detailing things to do to help solve the climate problem.
Messages of doom and gloom . We wanted to tell a story that would empower, something that parents and children could read together and that might move them to act. We hope kids and adults alike will be inspired to become heroes of their own stories. An effort that spans the generations will be all the more powerful.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭ime for a different story鈥�
