Hillary Clinton Urges Hollywood to Focus on How Climate Change Is Hurting Kids
Through the new Clinton Foundation initiative Too Small to Fail, the former secretary of state is trying to help people make the connections between children’s mental and physical health and the impact of climate change.
While Hollywood movies like Don’t Look Up and The Day After Tomorrow have used climate change as the inspiration for some high-stakes storytelling, Hillary Clinton would like the entertainment industry to start thinking smaller. A lot smaller. Like, infant or preschooler small. Through the Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail program, an early childhood initiative founded in 2014, the former secretary of state is now encouraging Hollywood writers and producers to embed ideas about young children and climate change in their films and TV shows.
“There’s now research on this topic, but most people are not aware at all,” Clinton says, of the idea that young children are especially vulnerable to extreme heat, stronger storms and wildfires. “Our hope is that we can help people make the connections between children’s mental and physical health and the impact of climate change.” Too Small to Fail already has some experience enlisting Hollywood as a storytelling ally: The organization advised writers rooms on shows like Orange Is the New Black, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and This Is Us about incorporating into their scripts the idea that talking, reading and singing to small children can make a significant impact on brain development.