Green Mission

‘Kid Demand’ and the Climate

I’ve been hearing this funny idea circulating — that Greta Thunberg, the now-famous young girl who’s been leading worldwide kid climate marches, is somehow manufactured. A put-up job by some larger group.

I’ve been connecting with Greta’s managers and handlers, both in her organization and at The Intercept, which helped with her U.S. trip, and everything about her story, as far as I can see, is legitimate.

But so what if it weren’t? Her message is undeniably legitimate — and would be even if she were an inflatable animatronic puppet controlled by a secret society of fruit bats. To paraphrase it: “Hey grownups, read the actual climate science — and act accordingly!”

Which is to say, act fast. This is not climate change anymore: It’s a climate emergency. And who is acting accordingly right now, while we grownups do not?

The kids all over the world. According to the U.N. and The Washington Post, the overwhelming majority of kids globally are worried about climate — and a stunning one fourth of them had already taken action by this year.

Then came this fall.

Urgent Action Required

From Greta’s solo actions in Sweden, to 2.1 million kids marching 18 months later, to 6.7 million this September, just five months after that. That’s an incredibly swift trend.

And if you’re in these marches, you hear the raw urgency in these kids’ voices. Our industry always looks to pinpoint that elusive, magical thing: “kid demand.” Well, if 6.7 million marching kids demanding change is not “kid demand,” I don’t know what is. And unless the climate fixes itself, it’s just the beginning.

But just what are they demanding? And exactly how do we engage with it?

Greta’s camp at first struggled to see the connection between kids’ media and kids’ climate marches. We struggle as well. Whether you’re an animator, a producer or even a top kids’ TV exec, odds are you’ve spent your share of time lying in bed paralyzed by the latest terrifying science news, feeling utterly powerless. Me too.

The thing is, we’re dead wrong. Kids’ media is actually a pivotal part of the climate solution — a critical bridge between kids and important ideas. Between panic and hope. When those kids march, they are not leading. They are demanding that we lead, so they can be kids. They are demanding our guidance, our ideas about where to go with their climate fears, about how they can help.

But on a more fundamental level, they’re craving hope, heroes, and some way to find humor in all of this. Hope, heroes and humor: exactly the three things that our industry is best at. Plus, we’re already hooked into mass kid-audiences globally. The opportunity to connect is enormous.

So, okay, the demand is there — but how do we fill it? Just like they did during that last great period of social upheaval, the ‘60s, when TV went radical to meet the demands of a young audience craving an understanding of a messed-up planet.

I was one of these kids, born into a world jam-packed with assassinations, race riots, gender battles and war. The thing that gave me perspective, hope, a guiding light in this dark time? Tons of hilarious TV that faced the chaos head-on and took the piss out of all of it; number-one hits shows like Laugh-In and

All in the Family that made fun of everything and everyone involved — from the old bigots to the young revolutionaries. Crazy as it sounds, it was family TV that made it fun. And woven through all of it: Ideas. Big ideas and small about how to engage with — and fix — a world gone haywire.

But probably the most liberating idea of all? To lighten

up. That none of us have to be perfect, or even too serious — we can be heroes anyway. We can be our imperfect, ridiculous selves and we can still change the world. The producers that figured out how to connect on this level were not only doing good, they were wildly successful, while their less-relevant competitors were left to die by the side of the ratings road.

So what is today’s army of kids demanding? (And what will millions more be demanding?) Someone to unleash in them those unquenchable kid powers of possibility, humor, excitement and — ludicrous as it might sound — fun, as they engage in the fight of their lives.

That “someone” is you and me. And those kid powers are what might help save us all.

‘If 6.7 million marching kids demanding change is not kid demand – what is?’

Students from around the world walked out of classrooms to bring attention to climate crisis. Lisa Simpson gave a speech about the issue in 2007, predicting Greta Thunberg’s powerful 2019 speech at the U.N.