Climate Change Scenarios Scare, and Motivate, Kids

"And they're looking ahead and going, 'Hey -- when we have kids, our kids are going to be messed up because of this, and we need to start doing something now.' "

Goldstein adds: "In my practice, they bring this up. Some of the kids are scared, and it's interesting, because I've seen an evolution. . . . Kids used to have fears of war and nuclear annihilation. That's dissipated and been replaced by global warming."

It's not just a U.S. phenomenon: A United Kingdom survey, by the Somerfield supermarket chain, of 1,150 youngsters age 7 to 11 found that half felt anxious about global warming -- and many were losing sleep over it, convinced that animal species will soon die out and that they, themselves, will be victims of global warming.

After 8-year-old Mollie Passacantando, daughter of Greenpeace USA's executive director, read a story about polar bears in class this year, the Fairfax County youngster and her friends spent recess marching around the playground with signs reading, "Stop global warming. Save the polar bears." A classmate taunted, "You can march all you want, but you're not going to save a single polar bear."

That riled Mollie up. With her father, John Passacantando, she started a blog to get the polar bear put on the endangered species list.

"I have heard from friends and work colleagues around the country," says Mollie's mother, Lisa Guide, "that global warming is a subject that can be stressful to children. Mollie was so concerned . . . we really felt it was important to help her do something constructive."

The number of interested students, both elementary-age and older, keeps booming. In 2003, 65 U.S. and Canadian colleges joined the Energy Action Coalition's drive to raise awareness about global warming. One year later, there were 280 campuses. By February, that number was 587.

"I think it's been exponential in growth," says Matt Stern, campus director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, describing the numbers of students fighting global warming's dire predictions: massive sea-level risings, drought, famine, widespread disease.

"If you follow global warming, every prediction is scarier than the prior one. It's really scary stuff. Global warming is this huge uncertainty, and we see it compromising our future.

"So much of going to school," he says, "is getting an education and preparing yourself for the future. But . . . what's the use of a college degree when Wall Street is under water?"

At Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring, Laura Dinerman's AP environmental science class has grown by an entire classroom each year: She started with 22 students, is teaching two classes this year and next year expects to have 66 students -- at least three classes, "if it doesn't go up," she says.

Dinerman has also seen a blossoming interest this year in the school's environmental club (mission statement: "Change the World"). Just under 10 teenagers were active last year; 90 have signed up this year, an increase helped by an aggressive marketing campaign and Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." Gore is this generation's Bob Dylan; "Truth" is its "Blowin' in the Wind."