Mystic author Bridget Shirvell offers tips for 'Parenting in a Climate Crisis'

WESTERLY — At a loss about how best to discuss climate change with your children? Wondering what age is appropriate to start a conversation? Feeling panicked about the urgency of the topic but confused about how to share your concern without being an alarmist with your hair on fire?

Bridget Shirvell to the rescue.

Shirvell, 38, a Mystic resident and longtime food systems and environment writer, has just released “Parenting in a Climate Crisis: A Handbook for Turning Fear into Action,” and plans to discuss her work at the United on April 9.

“I’m hoping for questions, too,” said Shirvell with a smile one recent morning as she sat inside Martin House Books on Canal Street, sipping coffee and discussing her book and its origins.

“I’ve been interested in the environment from a very young age,” she said, adding that her interest intensified when her daughter, Charlotte, now 6, was born.

That’s when she started thinking more seriously about the climate-child predicament.

“Like most parents,” Shirvell writes in her guidebook, “I want my daughter to grow into a happy, kind and successful being.”

But how would she be able to do that on a planet that is getting hotter, she wondered, and how best to talk to her daughter about the situation with sensitivity and reality?

How was she going to manage her own fears about the planet while she helped Charlotte manage hers, she wondered? What skills will her daughter need to live in the future with confidence?

Shirvell wrote about her musings in an article published in “Good Housekeeping” magazine titled “Here’s How to Talk to Kids About Climate Change in an Era of Climate Crisis,” with the subtitle “Teaching children how to be resilient and solve big-picture problems will prepare them for the future.”

Along with her research for the article, Shirvell interviewed a number of mothers and writers, including Lisa Hoyos, the director of Climate Parents, which helps kids and their parents encourage schools to move toward clean energy.

When she finished writing, she said, she knew she wanted to “go deeper,” and her book journey began.

“The book is divided into four parts,” said Shirvell, who grew up in Mystic with her parents and two younger siblings and graduated from Fitch High School. “Feel,” “Love,” “Build” and “Act.”

Part one, she explained, explores “the big, hard feelings that can color how and when we talk to our kids about the climate crisis.”

“That includes climate anxiety and grief,” she writes, “both ours and theirs.”

“My goal is to help those of us who feel overwhelmed with feelings like fear or anger or despair get to a place of empowerment and hope,” writes Shirvell, whose work has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, “Martha Stewart Living,” “Teen Vogue, and “Condé Nast Traveler.”

Part two, she went on, “looks at how helping children find joy in the natural world can be an antidote to climate grief — and a way to foster a sense of responsibility for protecting the environment.”

Part three offers practical advice, said Shirvell, who also works as an editor at the Yale School of the Environment, and part four “looks at how individual actions can help to create lasting systemic change.”

Former journalist, freelance writer and author Elissa Bass, a Stonington resident who worked for a number of years as an editor for the Stonington-Mystic Patch local news website, praised Shirvell and her book as she recalled hiring Shirvell — whom she calls “Bree” — roughly 15 years ago to write for Patch.

“Bree’s foundations in journalism and her great work covering the food and sustainability industries is what led her to this book,” Bass said in an email Thursday.

“What I love about the book is how accessible it is,” Bass added. “Bree wrote it as an actual handbook for busy parents.”

“It’s packed with real information but it’s not written for a Ph.D.,” Bass went on, “it’s written for anyone who wants to know what real actions they can take to make a difference for the environment.”

“I love what the publisher says the book is about,” said Bass, the mother of two adult children. “Helping kids build the skills they’ll need — including resilience, problem-solving skills, empathy, and acceptance — to face the complex challenges that the climate crisis is already creating.”

“I am so proud of Bree for this book,” Bass continued. “Four years of work and research while she was working full time and raising her daughter … It was a tremendous undertaking and I’m so happy to see it being so well-received already.”

The book has received praise from Publishers Weekly, which said it “provides crucial guidance on navigating a complex facet of modern parenting,” and from “Booklist,” which says “This sympathetic guide offers suggestions for starting conversations and modeling accessible vocabulary and also provides helpful definitions and background information.”

Shirvell who graduated from George Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in political science with a journalism minor, and from Quinnipiac University with a master’s degree in journalism, said she was also honored that David Standridge, the James Beard Award-winning executive chef of The Shipwright’s Daughter in Mystic, added a blurb to the book.

“The climate change looms large in all the things we do for the next generation,” Standridge writes. “This book lays out a clear path towards reducing our ecological footprint (including through our food choices) and emphasizes the importance of including our children in these decisions.”

“Bree has always been interested in the environment and sustainability,” Bass said, “but I think it was having and raising her daughter that led her to writing this book.”

“Bree practices what she writes,” Bass added, “and she educates everyone around her in her daily life and how she lives it.”

Shirvell, who also worked for PBS NewsHour back when Gwen Ifil was the co-anchor, said committing to make small  decisions makes a difference.

For instance, said Shirvell, she was wearing shoes made from recycled plastic water bottles, and she and Charlotte use cloth napkins at home, instead of paper. Charlotte is even aware that almond milk production can harm honey bees, a fact she sometimes points out to her almond milk-drinking grandmother.

Shirvell also drives an electric car, rations her air travel and mother and daughter actively work at being “friends to the earth.”

“You do the best you can when you can,” she said with a smile.

Shirvell said she is looking forward to the event at the United, to talking about her book, taking questions and sharing ideas and tips.

“I want it to be somewhat informal,” she said. “Mostly I want to make connections and build community.”