Aspen Ideas: Climate | Helping Kids Understand a Changing Climate
A growing coalition of educators, producers and broadcasters is reshaping children’s media to make climate literacy a routine part of early learning, weaving scientific facts, hope-filled narratives and practical actions into shows that reach preschoolers and pre-teens across television, streaming platforms and YouTube.
The effort, led by figures such as Laura Shifter of the Aspen Institute’s Planet Ed initiative, PBS veteran Al Roker, Sesame Workshop’s chief creative officer Kay, and Sinking Ship Entertainment founder JJ Johnson, seeks to give young viewers the tools, confidence and agency to understand a warming world and participate in its solution.
Climate Education Through Entertainment
The new wave is anchored by programs that blend entertainment with climate-relevant content while respecting the developmental needs of their audiences.
PBS’s “Weather Hunters”, created by Al Roker, targets children ages three to eight, focusing on weather—a perennial favorite in elementary classrooms—as an entry point for broader climate discussions.
The series follows a charismatic TV weatherperson, his wife and three children as they explore storms, sunshine and the science behind them, deliberately providing a safe, non-frightening space where kids can learn decision-making skills and feel empowered to act.
Early metrics show the show’s digital reach is substantial: the PBS Kids app logged more than 15 million views, underscoring the shift from linear television to on-demand platforms, while local PBS stations remain essential lifelines for families in rural areas lacking reliable internet.
Sesame Workshop’s Nature-Focused Approach
Sesame Workshop has taken a complementary approach for its youngest viewers.
Rather than presenting climate science directly, the organization’s preschool strategy emphasizes a love of nature through familiar characters, humor and age-appropriate small actions.
New digital pieces featuring beloved figures such as Burk and Ernie are designed for co-viewing with parents, grandparents and other caregivers—what the team calls the “circle of care.”
The content is first distributed to educators and service providers before reaching broader social-media audiences, and is supported by partners like the PSENG foundation, which helps fund and disseminate the material.
The network’s early foray into climate-related storytelling, a Hurricane Katrina special, was praised for confronting children’s fears head-on while instilling hope, a formula the workshop repeats across its curriculum frameworks, parent-talking-point guides and digital storybooks.
Climate Stories for Older Children
Sinking Ship Entertainment, under JJ Johnson, has expanded the scope to older children and teens.
A series co-produced with the Jane Goodall Institute follows a young animal-lover whose imaginative adventures translate into tangible community impact, while the teen-focused “Laya Goes Viral” chronicles a girl whose modest YouTube channel unexpectedly becomes a platform for activism after a song about the Great Barrier Reef goes viral.
Both shows embed climate themes within broader narratives, allowing characters to model sustainable habits—such as solar-powered vans and wind-generated houses—without overt preaching.
The production model has shifted from large, months-long live-action shoots to agile, small-team operations capable of releasing content within a day, resulting in more than 320 pieces of music videos, sing-alongs and environmental segments that encourage audience interaction despite limited budgets.
Principles Behind Climate Storytelling
Across these initiatives, a common set of principles guides storytelling.
The Climate Storytellers Toolkit, developed in partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute, stresses four pillars:
Earth as our home.
Human-driven warming.
Present-day impacts.
Collective action for a brighter future.
Projects are encouraged to portray humans as part of nature, consistently link problems to solutions, and provide clear, actionable steps.
The emphasis on “story first, message second” mirrors the success of mainstream films like “Avatar,” which communicated environmental stakes through emotional connection rather than didactic exposition.
Navigating Challenges in Children’s Media
The creators acknowledge the challenges of operating in a fragmented media landscape marked by political polarization, misinformation and a shrinking kids-media industry.
PBS, for instance, navigates climate politicization by ensuring curriculum accuracy, presenting factual science and fostering a sense of agency without sensationalism.
Audiences, research shows, reject sugar-coating and false optimism; they prefer truthful information coupled with realistic hope.
Accordingly, the programs avoid overt political framing, focusing instead on empowering children to take small, climate-positive actions—whether building a weather kit, conserving water or discussing species extinction, a statistic highlighted in a museum display that 82 species vanish each day.
Children as Agents of Change
Evidence suggests that these media interventions can spark real-world engagement.
In the Jane Goodall-linked series, 19 of 20 featured conservationists cited the institute’s work as their childhood inspiration, illustrating media’s capacity to catalyze activism.
Moreover, children often become catalysts for family behavior change, prompting bottom-up environmental impact that, while difficult to quantify, reverberates through households and communities.
Peer-to-peer learning—seeing other kids take action—further reinforces this ripple effect, turning climate awareness into a part of children’s “DNA” and shaping them into lifelong ambassadors for the planet.
Expanding Climate Awareness Through Partnerships
To broaden reach, the initiative leverages iconic mascots such as Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl and the Lorax, arguing that preserving the core messages of beloved characters can be more effective than rebranding.
Partnerships with organizations like the Jane Goodall Institute have also yielded tangible projects, including an elephant orphanage in Zambia and climate-action programs across dozens of countries.
Digital extensions, such as video games that embed climate concepts without feeling like “medicine,” reinforce lessons while keeping engagement high.
Building a Climate-Conscious Generation
While critics sometimes demand measurable CO₂-reduction metrics for climate education, the coalition stresses that the value lies in shaping attitudes, behaviors and a generational mindset that will influence future policy and consumption patterns.
As Laura Shifter notes, the impact will span this generation and the next, even if precise quantification remains elusive.
By normalizing sustainable practices—solar panels on a cartoon van, electric school buses in the background—and by giving children the confidence to share what they have learned with adults, the new wave of children’s media aims to turn curiosity into collective action, one small step at a time.