41. Bridget Shirvell on Parenting in a Climate Crisis: Teaching Kids Curiosity, Resilience & Hope

Humanism Now | Secular Ethics, Curiosity and Compassionate Change

“Research has found that the amount of questions kids ask dramatically decreases once they start formalized education.” – Bridget Shirvell

Journalist and climate-communicator Bridget Shirvell joins Humanism Now to share a four-part roadmap—feel, love, build, act—for raising climate-resilient kids. Drawing on her new book Parenting in a Climate Crisis, she explains how families can turn eco-anxiety into everyday action, nurture curiosity, and help children transform concern into hope.
Hachette Book Group

Connect with Bridget

• Website – https://breeshirvell.com
• Newsletter – Raising Climate Resilient Kids -Substack
• Instagram– @breeshirvell
• LinkedIn – /in/breeshirvell

Topics we cover

✔︎ Bridget’s feel-love-build-act framework for climate-conscious parenting
✔︎ Turning daily habits—into social tipping points
✔︎ Teaching stewardship through family pets without gender stereotypes
✔︎ Countering the curiosity slump that formal schooling often creates
✔︎ Balancing individual choices with systemic change & local activism
✔︎ Practical ways to ease eco-anxiety while fostering genuine hope
✔︎ Food, waste-reduction and other low-lift actions kids can lead

Resources & further reading

• Parenting in a Climate Crisis – Bridget Shirvell (2025)
• Tipping point for large-scale social change – Science (2018)
• Parenting and the climate crisis –The Ecologist (2025)

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Music: Blossom by Light Prism

บท

1. Intro to Bridget Shirvell & Parenting in Climate Crisis (00:00:00)

2. Finding Climate Balance: Concern and Action (00:02:41)

3. The Four Elements: Feel, Love, Build, Act (00:03:34)

4. Finding Climate Balance: Concern and Action (00:04:45)

5. Fostering Curiosity in the Next Generation (00:06:52)

6. How the Climate Awareness Changes with Age (00:11:33)

7. Necessity of Science Literacy for Environmental Awareness (00:14:45)

8. Reducing Carbon Footprint as a Family (00:16:30)

9. Views on Antinatalism (00:20:46)

10. Power of Individual Action from the Silent Majority (00:22:34)

11. Individual Action vs. Systematic Change (00:24:36)

12. Finding Hope and Taking Local Action (00:28:58)

13. Changing Minds on Local Politics (00:30:32)

14. Outro - Contact Humanism Now (00:31:51)