Secretary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton call on Hollywood to spotlight the effects of climate change on young children’s healthy development

• At a convening of Too Small to Fail, the Clinton Foundation’s early childhood education initiative, leaders across sectors explored new research on climate and early childhood development.

• A new science-based resource for storytellers and media, developed in partnership with the FrameWorks Institute with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, can help inspire action on the climate crisis and its unique impact on young children.

New York, NY – Climate change is significantly impacting current and future generations – as young children are facing adverse physical, cognitive, and mental effects as a result of some of the biggest drivers of climate change: air pollution, droughts and flooding, and prolonged and excessive heat.

“We know that climate change is no longer a problem of the future. We now know that these changes are devastating to young children’s healthy development,” said former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on the urgency of the problem.

Last month, leaders from the philanthropic, media, early education, and climate sectors gathered in New York City to explore ways to shine a light on this critical topic, at a convening of Too Small to Fail, the early childhood education initiative of the Clinton Foundation.

The convening, “Media that Motivates: Elevating a Compelling Narrative about Young Children and our Changing Climate,” explored ways to harness the power of popular media to raise awareness about climate change and its impacts on young children’s healthy development. A range of experts highlighted the role of popular media in increasing awareness and changing behaviors about pressing social issues, how it is being leveraged to to increase awareness about the changing climate and spotlighted promising solutions focused on young children.

Screenwriter, director, producer, and playwright Scott Z. Burns, who produced the documentary An Inconvenient Truth and the TV series Extrapolations, spoke about the lessons he learned in the seventeen years between the two productions, and how it shaped his approach to Extrapolations.

“I think one of the mistakes we made in An Inconvenient Truth [was that]… it became very comfortable to say we have until the end of the century. We don’t,” said Burns. “We need to move past that… One of the problems we have with climate is we tend to treat it very monolithically. We talk about it in terms of science and the science we know, but you have to meet people in any issue where they are,” said Burns. “As long as we continue to treat everyone the same, we’re leaving off so many people at both ends of the bell curve… To me, what that says is try and find universal stories, try and find characters that speak broadly and frequently.”

Throughout the day, leaders across media and advocacy explored solutions that help philanthropic and nonprofit leaders promote narratives and impact the public’s awareness, attitudes and behaviors around the climate crisis. Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President of The Rockefeller Foundation, expressed the need for effective information sharing about crucial issues related to climate, and the importance of designing materials specifically for children and families.

“A key part of our work is supporting the generation of evidence, and the scientists who develop this knowledge,” said Yee. “In today’s world, where social media influences how people consume information, we have a crucial role in promoting informed, action-oriented knowledge.”

The convening also marked the launch of a new science-based resource–or playbook–that Too Small to Fail commissioned the FrameWorks Institute to create with support from The Rockefeller Foundation. This playbook aims to help equip storytellers and content creators with information and tools about how the climate crisis is affecting young children’s healthy development.

“We know that we can do big things when we work together and when we learn from one another,” said Dr. Chelsea Clinton, Vice-Chair of the Clinton Foundation. “We are fiercely united in the work to ensure that all of the small humans in all of our lives, hopefully, live in a more sustainable planet and world.”

Bridget Antoinette Evans, CEO of Pop Culture Collaborative, a philanthropic fund, reflected on the importance of transforming toxic “narrative oceans” that harm marginalized people. While narrative oceans have the ability to unite people, they can also cause division and toxicity, undermining science and shaping our relationship to climate change.

“We believe that all of us, all of us in this room, around the world, we are all immersed every day in oceans of narratives, ideas, stories, cultural norms that are shaping how we think about ourselves, about the world, who belongs, who doesn’t,” she said. “So we know that we need to transform these narrative oceans.”

The convening built on the proven track record of Too Small to Fail to engage media as a strategy to support young children’s healthy development.

“This is the kind of challenge that Too Small To Fail and the Clinton Foundation is very much focused on taking on,” Secretary Clinton said. “We want to drive action into this intersection of climate resilience and children’s healthy development.”