Sesame Street's Elmo inspires adults at New York Climate Week event

Adults in New York City turned to a toddler puppet for climate inspiration on Tuesday during a Climate Week event focused on how global heating affects children. Elmo, the red character from Sesame Street, spoke to the audience about his fear during a recent storm featured in a TV episode with singer Post Malone. The character shared that courage means helping others even when you feel afraid, noting that he gave out hugs and played his xylophone. Elmo described finding trash and broken branches everywhere after the severe weather passed, adding that he kept a ready emergency bag for the disaster. The New York crowd warmly welcomed the puppet, putting aside any past debate over his NBA playoff loyalties. Kim Foulds, vice-president of research and insight at Sesame Workshop, stated that a recent study looked at how kids and parents handle extreme weather across the globe. Parents reported deep worry over intense weather, while children shared experiences with severe heat, floods, and other disasters. Foulds explained that these climate events disrupt young children by stopping them from going to school, playing outside, and spending time with friends or parents, with extreme heat affecting every region studied. Other speakers at the event included a climate scientist, a Unicef official, and a youth climate campaigner. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, advised that adults should tell children that other people care and that effective solutions exist, noting that kids grasp these ideas faster than adults.