Late last month, Hurricane Melissa pummeled Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean.

It was one of the strongest Category 5 storms on record, and yet it’s just one among many severe and devastating natural disasters the globe has experienced this year, spanning tornadoes, wildfires, earthquakes, heat waves and more.

“We’re watching climate change unfold before our eyes,” says Hailey Gibbs, associate director of early childhood policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

Climate change looms large over virtually every population, every geographic region and every industry. Yet children and their caregivers are some of the most vulnerable to its consequences.

“The fact that there are so few supports for early educators, to help protect young children’s health … it’s something we really can’t talk about enough,” adds Gibbs, who recently co-authored a report about the risks — and grim realities — that climate change poses to those touched by the early care and education field.

Most caregivers are already feeling the effects of climate change. In August 2024, a national survey from RAPID, out of Stanford University, found that 57 percent of child care providers and 61 percent of parents with children under age 6 had experienced at least one extreme weather event in the prior two years.

More than half of parents, in the same survey, said that their children’s physical health and emotional well-being are negatively affected by extreme weather.

If those numbers seem high, consider that children often spend at least part of their day outdoors. Extreme heat can cut that time short, as can poor air quality — both of which Gibbs referred to as “lower-attention crises.” Eventually, reduced time outdoors can reshape children’s relationship to nature and detract from their learning experiences.

But it’s not just unseasonably hot days and smoke traveling in from faraway wildfires that are hurting kids. Earlier this year, wildfires in Los Angeles wiped out entire neighborhoods in the city, destroying at least 40 child care programs, forcing another 240 to close, and displacing many of the people who staff them and families who depend on them. And in September 2024, Hurricane Helene swept through western North Carolina, damaging at least 55 child care programs so badly that they were prevented from reopening, and costing an estimated $46 million in facilities repairs.

Infants, toddlers and other young children are uniquely vulnerable to such events, Gibbs and her co-authors write, for a number of reasons.

Little bodies are more susceptible to extreme heat because they are worse thermoregulators than adults, and they inhale and exhale more frequently than adults. During extreme weather events, they rely on adults for their physical safety, as well as what clothes they wear and how much they hydrate.

Then there’s the psychological, social and emotional components. Children can experience trauma from natural disasters, and they tend to mimic the stress and anxiety that they sense their caregivers experiencing. For example, a 3-year-old who fled Hurricane Helene with his mother experienced uncharacteristic tantrums, disrupted sleep and bed-wetting for months following the storm, according to reporting in The Hechinger Report.

Young children also suffer from missed learning opportunities following natural disasters, such as when their schools or early learning programs are closed for extended periods. They thrive on routine and close caregiver relationships from a young age, so when both are disrupted, that can detract from their feelings of safety and security, Gibbs adds.

As for early childhood educators, they are among the lowest-paid professionals in the United States. Nearly half use some form of public assistance, such as Medicaid and food stamps. So when their homes or livelihoods are jeopardized, they rarely have the resources to rebuild quickly and resume their lives.

“It’s an immense burden to put on an already vulnerable sector,” says Gibbs, noting that home-based providers face added challenges such as working where they live and needing to comply with complex zoning laws.

So, what’s anyone to do about this?

The best answer to the present and future threats posed by climate change, Gibbs and her co-authors write, is increased public investment — at the federal, state and local levels. But given the current political climate, it’s unlikely to see that at the federal level, and states have some difficult budget constraints to contend with in the coming year, as federal cuts have left them with more holes to fill.

Other, lower-cost efforts exist too, such as integrating climate resiliency and emergency response into governance structures, Gibbs says, as well as galvanizing key stakeholders such as parents, grandparents, businesses and community leaders.

“The overarching theme is that we should be proactive, rather than reactive,” Gibbs says. “We need to make sure we have plans in place, investments in place, to support early educators in the crucial role they play in being the glue that brings vulnerable families together.”