Parenting is a full-contact sport, especially when you're also trying to save the planet. And for many, the escalating anxiety over the climate crisis is driving a new kind of activism: one that involves juice boxes and playground negotiations.
Meet the dads (and everyone else) who are turning climate action into a family affair, mostly because finding a sitter is a whole other global crisis.
Playdates for the Planet
Ben Block, a co-founder of Climate Dads back in 2018, watched his group swell to 800 members across 20 cities in just two years. Their mission? Get fathers involved in clean-ups, nature visits, and, crucially, sharing their stories. Because, as Block dryly noted to Bloomberg, the environmental mess isn't his kids' fault, and he's meeting them where they are: in the fight.
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Start Your News DetoxHistorically, environmental heavy lifting often fell to women and mothers. So, seeing dads step up is a refreshing change. Peter Olivier, a Climate Dad, put it well: it helps define a hopeful masculine role in a world that could use a few more of those.
Enter Ben Eidelson, a software engineer and father, who took the Climate Dads playbook and ran with it, creating Seattle-based Climate Papa "playdates." These aren't your average activist meetings where a toddler tantrum might get you sideways glances. Here, kids are explicitly welcome. While parents discuss the finer points of heat pump installations or home electrification, the little ones are, ideally, burning off energy on the playground.
Eidelson, like Block, realized his own parental drive was the engine for his environmental concern. And, it turns out, a lot of other dads felt the same way. So, he built them a pathway to action, telling Grist that separating these parts of life—parenting and planet-saving—just ignores our natural drive to make things better.
His event descriptions are a masterpiece of modern activism: "Coffee, snacks, and climate chatter while the kids burn energy on the playground." It's a low-pressure way for climate-minded parents to connect, kids optional. Because sometimes, you just need to talk about carbon footprints without having to explain why the swing set is suddenly a pirate ship.
Tech, Fatherhood, and a Future Earth
Eidelson doesn't just host playdates. He also leverages his tech wizardry, having created a digital tool that projects what Earth might look like for future generations, based on actual climate data. Which, if you think about it, is both impressive and slightly terrifying.
He also holds court on Substack and his podcast, tackling the intersection of climate, fatherhood, and technology. While the name is Climate Papa, Eidelson emphasizes it's for all climate-focused parents – dads, moms, aunts, uncles, grandparents. He just named it after his own identity as a father navigating his place in an uncertain future. Because apparently, that's where we are now: saving the world, one playdate at a time.
