This Sweet Earth: Walking with Our Children in the Age of Climate Collapse

by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

What does it mean to be a parent in the age of climate change? We are living in an era of climate collapse. We feel it in small when the snow falls less or the cherry blossoms bloom too early. And in large when our streets flood and entire towns burn to the ground. Climate anxiety touches nearly everything we do, but perhaps nothing so intimately as our parenting. It leaves an impossible task for those of us raising children. What do we tell our kids when the air quality is too bad to go ride bikes? What skills will they need if systems collapse? And what do we do with the fear, grief, and anger we feel as parents? Parent, activist, and writer Lydia Wylie-Kellermann wrestles with these questions and dares to argue that while the future remains unknown, there is still awe and wonder, love and struggle, gratitude and overwhelming joy to be found. As we raise our children toward this uncertain future, Wylie-Kellermann helps us see that those same children shift our posture, slow us down, and invite us to fall in love with the ground on which we stand. At this turning point in humanity, we can choose to shift our lives away from death-dealing profit systems toward life-giving, generous systems. Here is the moment when we must choose to fight like hell for climate justice. And we can do it by nurtuting a deeper relationship with this sweet earth in all its beauty, wonder, and wisdom, walking alongside our children.

Genres: Parenting

173 pages, Paperback

Published July 23, 2024

About the author

Lydia Wylie-Kellermann is a writer, editor, activist, and mother. She lives with her partner and two boys in the neighborhood where she grew up in southwest Detroit. She is the managing editor of Geez magazine, a quarterly, non-profit, ad-free, print magazine at the intersection of art, activism, and faith. She is the editor of The Sandbox Revolution: Raising Kids for a Just World (Broadleaf, 2021).

Reviews

[Xan Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just returned from time camping on Lake Michigan with my children, husband, dad, and my sister’s family. As children who grew up camping, my sister and I noticed how our experience was different than our kids; it never was this hot. And as we huddled in the bath house during another tornado warning this past week, we remembered only having to do this once during our childhood camping trips. As we named the ways the earth is changing and the impact it has on so many, I found myself grieving and finding solace in Lydia Wylie-Kellermann’s, This Sweet Earth: Walking with Our Children in the Age of Climate Collapse. Lydia creates space (again!) for us to pay attention to the world around us, name our fears, sit with the discomfort, AND find hope as we partner with children - ours, the neighbors, those in our faith communities, and those leading the way. As we wrapped up our camping trip, my dad invited us all to look up, “Do you see that? Look at the sun shining through the leaves of this Northern Red Oak. What a blessing to behold!” This Sweet Earth is just like those sunbeams cascading through the oak leaves - a blessing and an invitation to behold in the midst of climate collapse.

[Melinda Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the subtitle might lead us toward grief, I found the book shows us a possibility of rooting our way of life in awareness of creation in a way I found joyful and inspiring. This isn’t a how-to-raise-your-kids kind of book, but it uses the lens of her parenting as a guide for all of us. Through anecdotes and insights of her children, I found the way she valued their interactions with creation important in remembering to value everyone—to not dismiss someone’s views due to age or ability. I thought of the way my own child with disabilities relates to water and trees, and how that inspires me to slow down and take notice of the earth and the creatures around us and our interconnectedness.

You don't need to be a parent to find this book deeply meaningful. Instead, it reminds me that we are all still learning and that we all have that capability for awe and wonder. This leads us into understanding our relationship with creation and our desire to become better caretakers of life around us. I not only appreciated each chapter, but the suggestions and resources at the end.

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Sarah Holst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wylie-Kellermann offers this gift of a book, born from close observation of her children, the creatures of her watershed, and her own creaturely heart. This is a book that looks clear-eyed at the realities of our time and offers a creative, compassionate posture of response: our children deserve awe, wonder, and belonging as antidotes to despair and anxiety.

[Susan Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Sweet Earth is a heartfelt meditation on how how to help children confront climate change. You don’t need to be a parent to benefit from the wisdom in this book. It helped me to think about what I can do locally and how I can connect with neighbors in my community. It is beautifully written and I highly recommend it.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought a lot of peace and acknowledgement and hope to me, someone trying to parent while also recognizing the climate crisis all around us. It is filled with stunningly beautiful stories and poems. I'm thankful for this book!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a parent, but I do spend a lot of time with my two brilliant, thoughtful, and sensitive nieces. This book imparts important and hopeful wisdom to any reader wondering how we can find a path forward today through collapsing ecosystems and never-ending social injustices.

[Laurel Dykstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. This Sweet Earth is a gentle love letter to future generations. Wylie-Kellerman takes a clear-eyed look at the current and coming impacts of global climate change and finds hope in ordinary things: exchanges of simple good between neighbours, the fierce example of communities of color that have survived apocalypse already, and the sweet love and wonder of her sweaty headed boys for pet rabbits, bones found in the forest, and garden tomatoes.