Connecting Early Childhood Development to Climate Change: Insights for Communicators 

This report, developed in collaboration with the FrameWorks Institute and the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE), offers insights into how people in the US think about the impacts of climate change on early childhood development. It draws on a new analysis of cultural mindsets, advocacy communications, and media discourse to identify key challenges and opportunities to frame the issue in a way that builds public understanding. Based on this analysis, the report provides a set of emerging recommendations for communicators. 

Background  

Climate change is already affecting the environments where young children live, grow, play, and learn. Children, particularly those in communities facing structural inequalities, are among those most at risk of long-term harm from climate change. 

Despite the risk of negative consequences of climate change for children’s health and development, this is not an issue that the public is widely aware of, nor is it a major focus of climate-related policy or media coverage. A significant shift in public thinking on this issue is needed in order to develop policies and programs that support young children, their caregivers, and communities in our warming world.  

While the American public has some mindsets that present a challenge to advocates and other communicators, we also find that the absence of established thinking and discourse on this issue presents a significant opportunity to talk about it in a way that can build greater public understanding. To help advocates and communicators fill this gap effectively, we partnered with FrameWorks and Harvard Chan C-CHANGE to research current public mindsets, identify common challenges, and offer evidence-based strategies to build understanding and drive action. 

Connecting Early Childhood Development to Climate Change: Insights for Communicators explores core ideas around climate change and early childhood, examines current cultural mindsets and media discourse on the topic, and offers a summary of what this research means for advocates and others who are communicating about climate change and early childhood. It is paired with a brief, Five Trends in Public Thinking About the Connections Between Early Childhood Development and Climate Change, which highlights key findings and provides a snapshot of the recommendations for advocates and communicators. 

This work is part of the Communicating the Connections Between Climate Change and Early Childhood research project, a collaboration with the FrameWorks Institute and Harvard Chan C-CHANGE. 

Further research will be needed to explore how people’s thinking can shift in response to framing strategies that are designed to effectively communicate about young children and climate change. If you are interested in supporting the next phase of this work, please contact Corey_Zimmerman@harvard.edu to learn more.