Record-breaking heat, rising sea levels, increasingly extreme weather and more are fueled by the man-made climate crisis.
It doesn’t feel like a great time to be raising kids, or having them at all. But perhaps that is still true, if we can counter fear with knowledge and hope.
I chatted with Bill Weir, CNN’s chief climate correspondent and host of the CNN Original Series “The Wonder List with Bill Weir,” about these topics, as well as his new book, “Life As We Know It (Can Be): Stories of People.” Climate, and Hope in a Changing World,” written as an open letter to his own children.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
David Allan: Are you an optimistic or pessimistic person by nature?
Bill Weir: It depends on the day. I find that my mood during this beat is directly proportional to what I’m focused on. Some days it’s a firehose of peer-reviewed anxiety and just a sign of the many ways humanity is destroying the planet.
But the days when I focus on the problem solvers, the dreamers, the doers, the people who know there is a better tomorrow, heal the soul.
When I actually sat down to write this book, we were in a very dark situation nationally. And I found enough positive stories, I saw enough momentum moving in the right direction, that I now wake up most days with more wonder than worry.
The battle has only just begun and there is still so much that can be saved. And there is so much worth saving. That is the ethic I try to pass on to my children: to be clear about the challenges, but full of courage and hope for the solutions.
Allan: On one side you wrote: “The United States of America that I knew and loved is gone… eaten from within by metastatic lies fed to angry people in forgotten places.” On the other hand, you have deliberately had a child in recent years. What would you say to someone who is feeling conflicted about having a baby right now?
Weir: I’d say we need all the good help we can get. And if you believe your child will be a net positive for humanity, go for it. I think our basic purpose in life is procreation. Nature wants replication and hopefully improvement for the next generation.
It’s a very first world problem to think about whether or not you have children. It’s hard for people, and I completely understand the psychology around this stuff, because we haven’t really mastered the mental stress of climate change yet. We have not processed the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) as they relate to the climate, to realize what we have lost. And we must achieve acceptance of what we must build to survive and thrive.
There are family counselors who deal with parents who are in the grip of this grief. They still want to expand their family (but) are so concerned about what the future might hold. I think that’s a valid concern, and there was a time when I fully understood where those people were coming from. But I’m so happy that my son is here. He gives me inspiration that I might not have otherwise. He gives me perspective. I guess I believe that people can have a net positive effect on the planet. And most people want to be, and it really comes down to the stories we tell ourselves.
Allan: Young people are concerned about the climate. According to a 2021 survey published in the Lancet Planet Health, about 84% of 10,000 people aged 16 to 25 in 10 countries were moderately or extremely concerned about climate change. More than 50% of the participants in the study said they felt sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless and guilty about it. And more than 45% said their feelings about this topic negatively impact their daily life and functioning. You cite a similar study in your book. What would you say to these teens and young adults? Or what do you say, because your daughter is in that age range, right?
Weir: She’s twenty. Well, I’ll start by saying ‘sorry’. We are sorry that our intended and unintended consequences have ruined their future. They can’t take for granted the things I took for granted – air, water, temperature, how to build shelter, how to grow food – they don’t have the luxury of ignoring those things.
My father always said to me when I had problems: ‘Luckily you’re tough.’ And so I feel like we need to raise a generation of resilient kids and model for them what that looks like. We must be constantly vigilant against unexpected, unnatural disasters. And we need to talk about these things in communities.
I think a big reason for these spikes in climate anxiety in these polls is because we don’t talk about it. The result of adults not having honest conversations about what we are losing, what is worth saving, the decisions we have to make, because there are no easy decisions anymore. We must brutally calculate what is worth saving and what is worth letting go. I believe that only through these conversations can we move through the five stages of climate grief and reach its end: acceptance.
Allan: I love this detail about the birth of your son, River, that he was conceived in a lighthouse during the pandemic. It is the perfect metaphor, a beacon of light, of hope in the darkness. To take this metaphor one step further, another characteristic of lighthouses is that they are built to withstand the worst of nature, and are often so isolated that they must be self-sufficient. Are self-reliance and fortitude virtues that you think parents should place more emphasis on now?
Weir: Yes absolutely. My father was a bit of a misanthrope who liked to be alone. And he raised me with that sense of John Muir romance about living in a cabin in the woods. But John Muir used an ax that was made in a factory somewhere, by other people who didn’t have the luxury of going off the grid. We need everyone. These days we need all hands on deck.
When it comes to teaching resilience and independence as a personality trait, I think this is essential. But I want my children to be involved in their community and also be socially involved. To know their power as citizens and consumers of consciousness. To be the kind of neighbor who makes everyone around him stronger, no matter what.
Allan: I have two children myself, aged 12 and 16. And when I talk to them about the climate crisis, I find myself trying to spin it a little, to counter its demise with optimism about the government reversing the course we’re on. action, scientific breakthroughs, stories of people who bring about change. How do we find that balance in the daily conversation with our children to be honest, but not hopeless?
Weir: I’m constantly trying to find that balance. The best advice I ever received for living a climate rhythm in this part of my life came from Mister Rogers, who famously said that every time he saw a scary event on television, his mother told him to ” had to look for helpers’; There are always helpers on site. And this book is dedicated to the helpers, not just the first responders who meet in these disaster zones, but to the countless people who are living lives of quiet service and moving us in a more positive direction.
The helpers lift me up – the idea that the same frontal lobes that caused the problem when we exploded as a species can solve it once we come together. So much can be done. There is so much to save.
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