Parenting is hard. But it’s especially hard while navigating the climate crisis. And the uncertainty about the future — especially for one’s kids — has become quite the catalyst for action.
Take Ben Block, for example, who in 2018 co-founded an advocacy group called Climate Dads. Within two years, the group had grown to 800 members in 20 cities across the country, encouraging fathers to team up for clean-ups, visit nature reserves, and write public testimonials.
“The world’s environmental challenges are not my children’s fault,” Block told Bloomberg News, “Still, I try to meet them where they are.”
It’s part of a new generation of parenting, in which fighting the injustices of the world have become core elements of parenting.
And as women and mothers have long shouldered the burden of household tasks like recycling, as well as large-scale environmentalism movements, seeing dads step up is a welcome trend.
“It taps into something which I think is quite profound, which is how to be a hopeful masculine figure in the modern era,” Peter Olivier, a Climate Dad, told Bloomberg.
Inspired by Climate Dads, Ben Eidelson, a young dad and climate-focused software engineer, wanted to find his role in the movement, too.
And his Seattle-based Climate Papa “playdate” was born. Eidelson invited parents to discuss heat pump installations or home electrification, alongside naptime and extracurriculars. Kids were genuinely welcome in the space, something not every activist group can say.
Ben Eidelson, like Block, realized his motivation to do something about climate change came directly from parenthood — and that other dads are looking for a role for an eco-forward future, too. So he provided them with one.
“These things are not separate,” he told Grist. “The more we separate them, the more we’re dismissing the inherent motivation people have.”
Now years into his Climate Papa persona, Eidelson continues to host playdate events, with descriptions like: “Coffee, snacks, and climate chatter while the kids burn energy on the playground. A relaxed way to meet other climate-minded parents and friends (kids not required to come hang!).”
But he also leans into his work as a tech mogul and has created a digital tool that visualizes what the earth might look like for your kids and grandkids, based on climate projection data.
On Substack and on his podcast, Eidelson chats about all kinds of topics at the intersection of climate, fatherhood, and tech. It all comes back to his initial mission.
“Climate Papa is a home for the climate dads, climate papas, and climate papis. The climate abbas, the climate babas, and climate tatas,” he writes on Substack.
“It’s also for the climate mamas, climate aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, and all climate humans. It’s called Climate Papa, as it relates to my identity as a father seeking to explore how to play my part in what’s ahead.”
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A version of this article was originally published in The 2024 Environment Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image by Rakhmat Suwandi via Pexels
