Four-year-old Francis Gaskin, who lives with his family in Houston, has a favorite episode of his favorite new cartoon: When the Amazon rainforest canopy dries up from too much heat, the manic howler monkeys must move into the lower realm of the forest. Francis said that they had to find a new place to live.
The child said he noticed something else. There was no water in the stream because there was no rain.
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One of the first television shows directed at very young children to address climate change is called "Octonauts: Above and Beyond". The program tries to show three- and four-year-olds that their world is already changing without scaring them.
Climate scientists say it's depictions are mostly accurate. The program doesn't explain why the Earth is heating up.
Sign up for the Climate Forward newsletter, for Times subscribers only. Your must-read guide to the climate crisis.The show is about adventurous heroes. Two cats travel the world to save animals that are being swallowed by the rising seas. A hydrologist is delivering water to a herd of elephants on the coast of Africa as the weather gets worse.
She observes; "Temperatures have been rising all over the world." Without explaining the connection to greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, it might not be cold enough for the ground to stay frozen.
The series uses animals to teach about the natural world.
"Octonauts" is not mapped.
The senior television editor at Common Sense Media doesn't know of any other show about climate change for this age group.
The smoke from the wildfire is polluted. Over the past decade, smoke from wildfires has gotten worse, potentially reversing decades of improvements in Western air quality made under the Clean Air Act. There was an increase in particulate pollution from smoke that was the same amount as the improvement in air quality from regulating factories and other sources of pollution.
Relinquishing a large amount of money. The founder of the outdoor apparel maker, Yvon Chouinard, gave his company's ownership to a trust and an organization dedicated to fighting climate change. At a time when billionaires talk about making the world a better place, they often don't match reality.
The ice is melting The study found that the melting of the ice sheet could raise global sea levels by at least 10 inches. The study used a different measure to measure ice loss that takes into account the warming that has already happened.
Some shows for preschoolers, like "Let's Go, Luna" and "Dora the Explorer", have shown episodes about global warming. Climate change impacts are not addressed in many programs. PBS, which has been at the forefront of educational television for children, has little preschool programming about climate change.
Sara DeWitt is the senior vice president and general manager of PBS Kids. PBS has built its educational children's shows around the school curriculum. There is no consensus on how to teach the youngest children about the more powerful storms, wildfires, rising seas and extreme heat that will affect their lives.
Gary Evans, an environmental and developmental psychologist at Cornell University, is conducting a study of children in kindergarten through third grade to find out what they know about climate change and how it affects them. The best way to talk to young kids about climate change is not based on data.
Climate scientists want that to change. The first children to live their entire lives on a planet that has been irrevocably altered by human-caused global warming will be born within the last 10 years.
The burden of climate change is being carried by children. Eighty percent of the deaths attributed to climate change in developing countries were caused by children.
ClimateMama, an organization aimed at helping parents communicate with their children about climate change, said that more and more children are living through the crisis themselves. More than 33 million people have been displaced due to the floods, which were caused by heavier-than- usual monsoon rains and glacier melt.
The impacts are felt by children in the richest country. She said that we can't protect children from these realities if they live in Oregon or California.
Ms. Shugarman said that children are going to grow up and live through this era. Parents don't have enough data or education to have these conversations with their children. Help is needed by parents.
Ms. Shugarman said that there is a show called "Octonauts: Above and Beyond"
A crew of eight preternaturally adorable marine adventurers, including Captain Barnacles, a stalwart polar bear, Kwazii, a swashbuckling pirate cat, and Peso the penguin, are featured in the originalOctonauts series. The show is meant to evoke Jacques-Cousteau-meets-Star- Trek but executed with extreme cuteness.
Mr.Mueller and his team consulted with scientists at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories at San Jose State University in California to make sure the scientific accuracy of the show.
Mr.Mueller asked Neflix to expand the show. The first season of "Octonauts: Above and Beyond" was released in September of 2021. The initial idea was to broaden the world in which the explorers find adventure.
"As the team develops new story lines, it just so happens that a lot of the situations that creatures are in right now are as a result of the changing and warming climate."
A lot of our story ideas are gathered directly from the news.
To ensure that the episodes were both scientifically sound and emotionally appropriate for preschoolers, Mr. Muller and Ms. Stanton enlisted the help of a professor of environmental science at the University of Arizona and an educational media consultant.
She said that they are intentional. We are looking at how complex is too complex. It all goes back to the animals. They are cute, they are going on a roller coaster ride of adventure, and it always ends with the resolution of the creature in danger, and all is well with the characters.
preschoolers are shown how climate change could affect them There is a shortage of hot cocoa in an episode of the show. The team sings that changing climate makes the temperature high and the trees thirsty.
The show has been made available in 190 countries. The company did not give any numbers, but executives said that it was among the top 10 children's programs in 44 countries.
Gaskin said she was thankful for the show introducing a difficult subject that she might not have talked about with her son.
The impact of a changing climate has already been experienced by her family. She said that with Harvey, the Memorial Day flood, and the big freeze, the area has never seen anything like it before.
Ms. Gaskin said the series gave her ideas about how to discuss climate change with young students.
She said that kids are smarter than we think. Kids would pick it up if I brought this up in this way.
The program avoided frightening her son. Francis said it made him feel sad when he was asked about the Frogs who can't lay their eggs in the stream and the Creatures who lose their homes to rising seas.
He described how the Octonauts swooped in to save the day by airdropping water into the rainforest, creating shade for the withered cocoa trees, and moving animals to higher ground.
Heather Goldstone, chief spokeswoman for the Woodwell Climate Research Center, said that a lot of the science is correct. There is a new interaction between animals and plants that have not been done before.
The show never mentions that human activity is causing the crisis and Ms. Goldstone was critical of what she called "band-aid" solutions.
Ms. Goldstone said that the episodes don't explain why there is a lack of rain in the Amazon. Fossil fuels are warming the planet and there is a missed opportunity to teach about it. Humans can stop warming the planet.
Heather said that was too far for preschoolers. She said that kids need to be aware of the structure of the episodes. Our characters can't solve that problem over the course of the show. It puts it in a scary situation if they take on something that they can't solve.
Ms. Goldstone said the program met a new challenge. She said that the only way to get better is to experiment. We need to talk to other adults about climate change and we need to talk to children about it.
She praised anyone who was trying.
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