Climate change for preschoolers: A TV show explores unmapped ground

There are almost no books, TV shows or other tools to help parents and teachers talk to preschoolers about climate change. “Octonauts: Above and Beyond” is one of the first to try.

Four-year-old Francis Gaskin, who lives with his family in Houston, has a favorite episode of his favorite new Netflix cartoon: When the Amazon rainforest canopy dries up from too much heat, the manic howler monkeys must move into the lower realms of the forest, creating havoc among the other rainforest residents. “They had to find a new home,” Francis explained during a video interview.

“I noticed something else,” the preschooler added. “The frogs were going to lay their eggs in the water, but there was no water in the stream because there was zero rain.”

“Sometimes the Earth warms up,” he said.

Francis’ favorite show is “Octonauts: Above and Beyond,” the recent spinoff of a long-running BBC program, and one of the first television shows directed at very young children to explicitly address climate change. The program attempts to strike a delicate balance: gently showing three- and four-year-olds that their world is already changing, without frightening them with the consequences.

Continue reading on The New York Times.

The climate future is now. Humans navigate a ‘Perilous Course’ on the East Coast.

After murky water from the Mamaroneck River gutted the sanctuary, the rotting pews in First Baptist Church sat empty for months.

When the faithful returned, they wore whatever remained of their Sunday best. A blush pink blazer. A dress shirt buttoned tight around an Adam’s apple. Ladies white gloves.

Some parishioners were still displaced from their apartments and houses, lives scattered across hotel rooms, shelters, friends’ couches.

Continue reading on MSN.

still image from Max's Impact Report 2022 thank you message.
Dr. Max Homes, President and CEO of Woodwell Climate Research Center, highlights our work over the last year and gives you a sneak peek of what we have going on this fall. Thank you for being part of the Woodwell Climate team and supporting our work!

Woodwell and Wellington talk climate risk

When company leaders are presented with predictive maps showing the increased prevalence of drought, wildfire or flooding in their area due to climate change, one of the most common reactions is “Where did you get this information from?” according to Chris Goolgasian, director, climate research and portfolio manager at Wellington Management which has about US$1.4 trillion in assets under management.

While efforts to mitigate global warming are increasingly widespread, Goolgasian said communities and businesses around the world are under-informed and largely unprepared to adapt given a 1.5 degree Celsius increase in average temperatures is almost certain.

In a panel discussion at Conexus Financial’s Sustainability in Practice Forum at Harvard University, Goolgasian spoke with Zach Zobel, a scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, about the ongoing partnership between Woodwell and Wellington. 

Continue reading on top1000funds.

Northeast drought endangers Massachusetts’ cranberry harvest

Another year of erratic weather means cranberry farmers are facing slim margins and tough decisions.

A woman in waders measures the depth of a bog full of floating cranberries.

Continue reading on Grist.

The ancient subarctic forests at risk from climate change and war

The boreal ecosystem that covers swaths of Russia and North America is nearing a dangerous tipping point

A view of a boreal forest in Siberia, with a small lake in the foreground and a mountain in the background.

In summer 2019, the Cambridge physicist Gareth Rees flew into Yakutsk to meet a team of Russian scientists. The far eastern Siberian port is known as the coldest city on Earth, but that year it was simmering under a heatwave. Together the researchers drove deep into the region’s sprawling forests on a road paved by gulag prisoners.

The British and Russian scientists were on a mission to study how the boreal forests of the subarctic region are transforming with climate change. Together they measured 2,000 trees, sweating under the heavy clothes protecting them from crowds of insects.

Read more on Financial Times.