It is a massive pleasure to welcome Nicola Davies to the blog.  Nicola studied zoology before going on to work at the BBC Natural History Unit.  Nicola is a multiple award-winning author of numerous books including poetry, non-fiction and stories.  Nicola’s latest book Skrimsli is the second novel set in the same world as The Song that Sings Us where animals and humans are able to share their thoughts.  In this far-reaching and thought-provoking blog, Nicola reflects on four decades of working with children and young people.

I’ve been talking to children about nature for all of my adult life, at first as an enthusiastic undergraduate visiting primary schools to talk about conservation, then as a TV presenter and as an author. The first thing I have to report back from four decades of encounters with young people is that all children want to know about nature, unless they are in the grip of deep misery or trauma; even then, many children seem to find news from the natural world, outside their current difficult experience or hospital window, welcome and cheering. That’s something that hasn’t changed at all in all those years.

But some things have changed. The biggest is that many children no longer have direct access to nature. There are fewer gardens and parks and many children, their parents and even grandparents, have grown up without the ordinary contact with worms and ladybirds, robins and blue tits, that almost everyone had when I was a kid. The result is that nature is something remote, almost fictional. The children I meet today may know about lions and sharks, but they almost certainly couldn’t name a dandelion or a dunnock.

The other big change is children’s level of anxiety about the destruction of the natural world and climate change. Some children are being given good quality information about the environmental crisis, and they have some understanding of the problems, what caused them and what the potential solutions are. These children, although gravely concerned about the future, are not so much anxious as angry at the adults in charge who are jeopardising their futures. I don’t worry about these well-informed kids; anger is a useful and appropriate response and it will, when they get to adulthood, mean that they will start to implement change.

The ones I do worry about, are the ones whose grasp of the facts around climate change and biodiversity loss rests on a project on endangered animals that they did in year 4. The dire predictions, gloomy warnings, the news of forest fires and floods filters down to them from adult media all around. They have no way of placing all this in a context or really understanding what its all about. All they know is that it is frightening and their response is either to shut it all out and not want learn about it, or to be paralysed with anxiety.

I feel very strongly that we have a duty to children to tell them about climate change, the biggest problem humans have ever faced, and how it’s going to influence their lives. But we do not have to present this as the unavoidable apocalypse, because it isn’t. What we do have to do is to tell them is that running our society on fossil fuels is the past and the future is all about changing the way we do almost everything. Not just how we power our homes and grow our food, but how we distribute wealth, how we treat those driven from their own lands by conflict and climate chaos. It’s about prioritising people over profit, community over material wealth, about sharing. It is, in short, about making the world better in every way and children, with their innate sense of fairness and right, will grasp this idea very readily.

I know that some people will find this tricky. Some still believe that speaking about climate change is a political matter. But I trained as a scientist and I deal in facts. Climate change is a fact and so are the actions we need to take to combat it.

 It’s essential that we adults talk to children about climate change. I know that’s difficult but here are a few things that may help

1.    Clarity. Clearly presented factual information explained in a way that’s accessible and intelligible.

2.    Action. We all know how miserable feeling powerless is, so share with children ways in which they can be part of the solution. This might include protest. In fact it probably should for the sake of children’s mental health.

3.    Time. The battle against climate change won’t be won overnight. It’s a long job so it’s worth telling children how no European cathedral was built inside 300 years.  Part of being a human today is being a good ancestor

4.    Allies.  Children need to know that natural ecosystems like forests, kelp beds, sea grass meadows and soil are our allies, soaking up large amounts of Co2.

5.    Comfort. As always nature can be a comfort; not the nature on TV is all its beautifully filmed ,slow-motion gorgeousness, but the dandelion in the pavement crack, the blackbird singing from the rooftop. The biggest favour you can do your children and yourself is to reconnect with the simple nature outside your door- learn its names, notice its beauty and learn from its resilience and fearlessness.

A big thank you to Nicola Davies for the blog and to Firefly Press and Graeme Williams for the opportunity.