How to Teach a Child About Global Warming

To avoid the same environmental mistakes past generations have made, children must be taught about global warming. Waste will always exist, even if future technological advances create clean burning and renewable energy. That is why it is important to teach children how to live environmentally friendly now, so they will do so in the future, too. Read on to learn more.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Begin with the basic concept of recycling paper, plastic, glass and metal. Teach children what happens when these items are thrown away. For example, if your child asks why you are recycling plastic grocery bags, explain that grocery bags will stayed buried in a landfill for about 100 years.

2. Teach children the concept of reuse. Take all of the clothes your children have outgrown and donate them to charity or a women and children's shelter.

3. Explain that greenhouse gases are the No. 1 contributor to global warming and the No. 1 greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. Teach your children that every time you drive, use electricity or natural gas, greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.

4. Clarify the cycle of global warming. Explain it in simple terms like this: The suns rays warm the earth. What the earth does not use is reflected by the earth's atmosphere and sent back into space. Greenhouse gases trap this unused heat causing the earth to get too warm.

5. Make the effects of global warming clear. Use easy-to-understand terms. For example, if the earth gets too hot, plants and animals will die and lakes and rivers will dry up. If this happens, it affects the water we drink and the food we eat.

Tips & Warnings

• Show children how to help counteract the effects of global warming. Teach them that this can be done simply by planting trees or turning off the lights when they leave a room.
• Teach children by example. If you are taking all the steps to help reduce your family's energy consumption, your children will naturally follow in your footsteps.
• Participate in an "Ozone Action Day" by not mowing the lawn or filling up your car's gas tank, by not driving and by using the least amount of electricity as possible. Explain to your children that these activities make the air we breathe unhealthy.
• Teach your children about global warming in small doses. Talking about it constantly will make it seem like you are "nagging" them. If kids think you are nagging, they tend to stop listening. If they stop listening, the lessons will be lost on them.

Resources

• Teach children more about global warming.
• Get more facts about global warming.