Sesame Street Tackles Storms, Avoids Climate Change
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- Sesame Street aired "Storm on Sesame Street" on Monday, depicting a fierce storm that knocked over lampposts, blew out windows, and scattered debris around Oscar the Grouch's trash can.
- Elmo, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Grover, and Snuffleupagus prepare for the incoming storm and assess the damage afterward in the episode, which is viewable on Netflix and PBS Kids.
- The episode was created to help children make sense of increasingly common extreme weather, but never mentions climate change or fossil fuel emissions as drivers.
- Rocio Galarza, Sesame Workshop's VP of U.S. educational programs, said the team is well aware of the scientific evidence showing that human activity is dangerously warming the planet.
- The 57-year-old children's show had long operated under a sunny-day ethos — "sunny days used to sweep the clouds away" — before folding extreme weather into its storytelling.
Why it matters: Sesame Workshop's VP confirmed to the NYT that the team recognizes the scientific consensus on human-caused warming — making the climate silence in 'Storm on Sesame Street' a deliberate editorial choice. The world's most influential children's program is treating extreme weather as a safety lesson rather than a teachable moment about its causes.
