Beyond the Pod: Mitigating the Impact of Climate Change on Young Children
When we think about climate change, we often imagine its impact on our planet and future generations. But for young children, including those in early education settings, the effects are already here. Air quality, extreme heat, rising sea levels, and other environmental hazards are disrupting our youngest learners’ health and development right now. In episode four of our hit podcast, “No One Is Coming to Save Us”, we hear from Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and associate professor at Stanford University, who discusses the physical and mental ways that climate change impacts kids.
We also hear from Susan Gilmore, President & CEO of North Bay Children’s Center, who shares her experience at a time when child care providers became critical supporters of first responders of the pandemic and the California wildfires.
In order to protect children, families, and educators from these immediate and growing risks, we must invest in child care programs and ensure that they have the support and resources they need.
Research has shown that young children’s developing bodies, particularly their respiratory and immune systems, are more susceptible to air pollution, extreme temperatures, and environmental stress. Exposure to fine particulate matter, for example, increases the risk of asthma, and conditions such as ADHD, depression, and anxiety.
In neighborhoods like East Boston, where our partner organization, East Boston Social Centers (EBSC) operates, the risk is even higher due to environmental justice factors that disproportionately impact historically marginalized communities.
EBSC is a member of The Neighborhood, a network of five Boston-based early education programs with which we collaborate to identify shared challenges and co-design, implement, and evaluate solutions. We also work to bolster Neighborhood program capacity to meet the greatest needs of the children, families, and educators they serve with funded staffing positions and access to centralized services, including operations management.
For EBSC, climate resilience is not just a priority – it’s a necessity. Located in an environmental justice community with elevated levels of air pollution, EBSC’s early learning classrooms serve children who are exposed to fine particulate matter daily. To mitigate this risk, EBSC partnered with Professor Scott Hersey and students from Olin College to install HEPA filter systems that reduce indoor air pollution by 80%. These filters are constantly running in EBSC classrooms, creating a safe environment for students to learn and grow. EBSC extended this support to families in East Boston by making some of these HEPA filters available for home use, further reducing children’s exposure to harmful pollutants outside of the classroom.
The HEPA filters, implemented at the outset of the pandemic, helped prevent the transmission of the virus in EBSC facilities. And while it’s challenging to measure the direct mental health impact of these interventions, the reduced presence of pollutants and improved air quality have undoubtedly lessened the strain on children and educators.
EBSC and the City of Boston also initiated a program in East Boston, which was identified as a heat desert, to help address the impact of heat emergencies. On hot days, EBSC activates a cooling and misting space for families and also provides staffing in the space to have low-level activities for the children, expanding the accessibility for families to have a place to cool off during a heat emergency.
The installation of air filters and creation of cooling spaces during extreme heat are practical solutions to the very real challenges that climate change poses. EBSC’s efforts are an example of how child care programs can lead on climate resilience in their communities – but they can’t do it alone. Programs like EBSC’s need adequate operations support to implement and sustain these critical interventions. This includes funding for infrastructure improvements like air filtration systems, as well as support for staff training, facility maintenance, and emergency preparedness.
Programs like Massachusetts’ Early Education and Out of School Time (EEOST) capital grant funding are critical to this effort, helping child care centers improve their facilities and make necessary improvements to withstand the challenges of climate change.
Climate change doesn’t impact everyone equally. Lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color, like those served by EBSC, face higher exposure to environmental hazards and receive fewer resources to mitigate these risks. In our racial justice report on child care inequities, we highlight how the child care system perpetuates these inequities, leaving families of color disproportionately vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Climate change will undoubtedly shape the lives of our young children. But by supporting our providers, we can ensure that our early education programs are prepared to meet this challenge head-on. From improving air quality, and preparing for extreme heat, we must continue research, measure the impact of interventions, and invest in solutions that work.
Through partnerships like ours with EBSC, we are demonstrating the power of operational support in building resilient child care centers that not only protect children’s health but create a foundation for their long-term success. Together, we can ensure that every child has the opportunity to grow up and thrive in a healthy environment.
