In this interview Margaret Chambers appeared on Mornings – fiveAA to discuss the IPA’s research into Climate anxiety in children.
All media appearances posted onto the IPA website are directly related to the promotion and dissemination of IPA research.
Below is a transcript of the interview.
Matthew Pantelis:
24 minutes to 10:00 on FIVEAA. Now, somewhat related to the algal bloom, particularly if it is climate change that is heating our waters. We’ve all seen images of school-aged children at demonstrations on climate change or stop coal mining or whatever it is where they are absolutely in tears because they’re terrified the world will end as a result of global warming and their futures no longer assured. Now, rightly or wrongly, it seems to me anyway that that fear is much misplaced. And there’s a call today for classrooms I suppose is what it is to stop climate education practises that may create alarm in children. Margaret Chambers is a research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs and joins me now. Margaret, good morning.
Margaret Chambers:
Good morning, Graeme. Thank you for having me.
Matthew Pantelis:
Matthew. Yes, close.
Margaret Chambers:
Okay.
Matthew Pantelis:
You’re all right. Graeme’s back Monday. But anyway, it is concerning that kids are, and we’ve seen those images, they’re absolutely terrified the world’s about to end.
Margaret Chambers:
Yeah, it absolutely is quite scary. And we’ve seen these children in hysterics, and it’s because of what we’ve taught them in the classroom, especially through the Australian national curriculum. This isn’t just a spontaneous issue that’s arising. This is something that educators and our government has actually caused by feeding children these narratives about imminent climate catastrophe. So yeah, as you said, what we’ve done today is we’ve written to these peak psychological associations across Australia, and we’re urging them to actually put their money where their mouth is and advocate for the needs of the child in promoting developmentally appropriate climate education. So what that means is that these bodies, it’s an incumbent upon them to make sure that they’re actually using their platforms to advocate for the mental health of children, rather than just using them to sort of spout off on political agendas like net-zero and climate action and just acknowledging that what we’re teaching children in classrooms is harming them.
Matthew Pantelis:
Oka., and so it is political messaging. You’re saying that that’s what they’re getting in classrooms is political messaging?
Margaret Chambers:
Oh yeah, absolutely. This is absolutely a politicised agenda that’s kind of crept in there. And we’ve seen children fed these messages from the time that they enter the classroom in prep. So there are examples across the national curriculum of children in prep being asked to develop a rap about climate change, or in English class they have to write a poem about polar bears and how they might feel that their environment’s being melted by the rising temperatures and the rising sea levels. And what we’ve found in our report is that children are ill-equipped to deal with this kind of messaging. I mean, that’s alarming for an adult, let alone a child who doesn’t have the cognitive capacity to actually deal with that. So we’re calling for these associations really go into bat for kids and to recognise that this is harmful.
Matthew Pantelis:
Have you written to the education union, or do you think that’s pointless?
Margaret Chambers:
Well, we don’t know that they’ll actually do anything about it, but we do intend to write to them and to really take this to the government, take this to politicians and to kind of ask them for accountability and what they’re actually doing in this area.
Matthew Pantelis:
Should you take it to politicians?
Margaret Chambers:
Well, we are a research organisation, so what we do is create research and to share that research with the public. It is our hope that people will realise how harmful this is and that they will put pressure on the government themselves.
Matthew Pantelis:
Kids, apart from the fact we see them at protest, and that’s about the only indication I’ve ever had that kids are terrified about the possibility of climate change in the world ending within their lifetimes. What other effects on children occurring?
Margaret Chambers:
Yeah. So what we’re seeing, and particularly psychologists like my colleague Clare Rowe, who authored our first report, she’s seeing people show up to the clinic terrified about the future of the planet, urging their parents to stop eating meat.
There was one child that she recalls the story of a child who didn’t want to enter the car for fear of emissions being produced by the car. It isn’t just anecdotal, this is also backed up by evidence. There was a large-scale study published in the Lancet Planetary Health a couple of years ago, and it found that 59% of young people are extremely worried and to the point that 45% of these respondents that it affected their life every single day. Every single day, these kids are worried about what’s going to happen to the future of the planet. So it’s no wonder that they show up like Greta Thunberg to protest and to demand urgent climate action. It’s because they’ve been taught that from the time they enter the education system.
Matthew Pantelis:
It almost seems to be brainwashing the way you describe it.
Margaret Chambers:
Yeah, I think it absolutely is. I mean, the way that the education system is structured in the national curriculum, it’s that this idea of sustainability is in every subject area. It’s an every year level. So you really can’t avoid it if you’re a child going through the education system. You’re fed this in math, in English, in science, in music. It’s across the education that you receive at school. So yeah, it’s really quite troubling. And I think that that’s one of our calls to action is that that sustainability priority actually be removed from the curriculum so that children can go to school and actually just learn about content rather than ideology.
Matthew Pantelis:
It’s more about them getting into the ear of the governments, isn’t it, and education departments and ensuring the messaging is correct that some of that is taken out and they’re taught facts and not political statements.
Margaret Chambers:
Yeah. And we’re really hoping through sending these letters that these peak psychological bodies will have a role in actually calling for and promoting safe developmental education and that they can… to the politicians and really raise the alarm on this issue because it is an impending catastrophe for our…
Matthew Pantelis:
Yeah. So I mean, kids with a feeling of hopelessness moving forward, obviously mental health issues that can arise from that. Not positive for anyone, families and the individuals themselves. Margaret, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.
Margaret Chambers:
Thanks so much, Matthew. Bye.
Matthew Pantelis:
Margaret Chambers, IPA, rather, Institute of Public Affairs, a research fellow there on their research showing that they’ve written to peak bodies of their research, which shows a surge in childhood climate anxiety in children who don’t have, they say, the neurological capacity to process existential threats presented as facts in the national curriculum. They go on to say adults have a duty to protect, not burden kids, and protect the developing minds of children. All right. 822300-
This transcript of Margaret Chambers speaking on Mornings – fiveAA from 18 July 2025 has been edited for clarity.
