A new website and group hope to spur dads to action about climate change.
Ben Block says there’s no time to waste. “Every day we choose to not take climate change seriously is one day lost,” he says, “when we frankly don’t have time to lose.”
A Pikesville native, clean energy expert and father, Block, 33, is alarmed by politicians and others who say climate change is not real and dismiss the scientific evidence.
Soon after his 1-year-old son, Corey, was born, Block began developing a nonprofit digital platform aimed at mobilizing fathers on environmental issues. Launched last Father’s Day, ClimateDads.org assists fathers in forming deeper connections with their children through environmental activities, advocacy and lessons on environmental conservation and stewardship. The site already has more than 350 active followers.
ClimateDads.org also guides families on low-carbon futures by broadening access to affordable climate solutions and presenting climate adaptation tools, financing opportunities and sustainable investing advice. The website currently has approximately 350 active followers.
“Today, kids suffer from ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ and are not connecting to nature,” says Block. “Parenthood is difficult, and that is why the global environmental movement doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Moms and dads rush in the morning, go to work, and millennials such as myself are expected to solve this huge problem.”
A marketing and communications manager with Clean Markets, a clean energy development firm, Block lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Emily, and their son. For nearly three years, Block worked as a staff writer for the Washington, D.C.-based environmental think tank, Worldwatch Institute. In 2010, he received a Fulbright Fellowship in Peru, where he traveled to analyze how the destruction of the tropical rainforest there affected carbon emissions.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied journalism and environmental science and policy, Block says his primary objective for Climate Dads is to see the organization develop local chapters in big East Coast cities with like-minded dads getting together for educational and advocacy forums.
He hopes to work with chapters to expand “a movement of fathers advocating for action on climate change. As fathers, we can teach. We can be leaders and role models and show kids how to get out into the environment. We all want our kids to live better off than we are.”
Teaching about environmental stewardship needs to start early, Block says. “Real involvement takes place in the later elementary and middle school years when young students experiment and create do-it-yourself science projects,” he says. “They study nature or play with critters from streams or the Chesapeake Bay.”
Later, when teenagers reach high school age, they make real decisions and “begin to understand the systems at play and the need to shift economic power from carbon-emitting to clean energy industries,” Block says. “We need today’s teens to make the right choices and take action.”
Fathers can play a crucial role, he says. “We can learn that solutions to climate change are also very cost-effective, and freeing up money spent on energy costs means more room in the family budget to take care of other expenses — like education, health care, summer camp, you name it,” he says. “Families can make a lot of moves to effectively transition to a low-carbon future. They can switch out the lights to LED or other eco-friendly, energy-efficient lightbulbs. They can explore energy-efficient alternatives to their current water heating, heating and cooling systems. These can be expensive but smart changes in terms of the long-term benefits for both the home and the environment.”
Phil Chorney is a self-proclaimed Climate Dad who has known Block since they participated in B’nai B’rith Youth Organization in Baltimore years ago. A passionate marine and aquatics ecosystem advocate, Chorney says he believes Block’s founding of Climate Dads is an important move toward mobilizing families on climate change issues.
“It’s so critical to teach our children about the environment,” says Chorney, who lives in Baltimore and has two daughters, Tali, 2, and Kaya, 2 months old. “You have to start simple. I read [the children’s book] ‘A is for Activist’ to Tali. I show her fish, birds, I take her to the [National] Aquarium and into the woods for hikes. I show her the world around us.”
That’s sweet music to Block’s ears. “Every family has to decide for themselves,” he says. “We want dads to do what’s right for their families.”
For information, visit climatedads.org.
Billy Treger is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.
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