Nic Seton, the CEO of Parents For Climate, is leading a charge against climate change with a goal to empower Australian parents to take action. The organization, which advocates for environmentally sustainable practices and policies, has the potential to influence power dynamics within the political landscape, as it represents approximately 12.5 million parents across Australia. Seton’s childhood was spent on the outskirts of Logan and Queensland. His experiences and climate change’s ability to make everything worse make him dangerously motivated.
Seton’s Logan childhood immersed him in rapid suburban sprawl that frequently thinned local forests. As a civil rights activist, he saw firsthand the deep environmental and community destruction that new freeways and suburban development created. This formative understanding of climate concerns would eventually inform his worldview as an activist. After seven years with Greenpeace, organizing in countries around the world, Seton found himself having become a father. Yet the birth of his son seven years ago added a new dimension to Welling’s concern about climate change.
Nobody feels this urgency more than Seton. His three-year-old son suffered acute bronchiolitis and required hospitalization due to inhalation of smoke from bushfires. Then Seton was completely upended by the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires. They turned his perception of climate change from a mere idea into an immediate and emotional existential threat. It’s this emotional weight of these experiences that he hopes can help lead others to learn more about and combat climate change.
In his role at Parents For Climate, Seton emphasizes the importance of unity over division when dealing with climate change. He is concerned that polarization and extreme points of view undermine honest, productive discourse. This is particularly urgent in the context of fighting global warming. Rather than sow discord, Seton encourages everyone to focus on finding common ground with unlikely allies to develop solutions collaboratively.
Parents For Climate, an Alliance member, is leading a national effort to increase resilience of schools and childcare centers. Here’s what makes them truly special — they don’t just develop exciting new tech. Ultimately, Seton imagines a day when these institutions will be fueled by solar energy supplemented by battery storage systems. If fully implemented, this program could turn schools into the fifth largest energy-consuming sector in Australia. It’s surely a healthy step toward dramatically reducing their overall carbon footprint.
Beyond that, Seton knows that creating a space for community is especially important among parents who are just getting started on their own climate action journeys. He believes that creating a supportive environment can encourage more individuals to engage with climate issues and take meaningful steps toward sustainability. His message is clear: parents should not feel overwhelmed or inadequate in their efforts to combat climate change; every action counts.
